Family First
by Pazel
Summary: Lonely Isan Fujioka, Haruhi's cousin, sees the world as sweetly as Hani, as wisely as Mori, as excitingly as the twins, as innocently as Tamaki, as greedily as Kyoya, and as bluntly as Haruhi. How will they react to this person who mirrors their faults?
1. A New Addition To The Family

Haruhi rubbed her eyes and stepped out of her room into the hallway. Low murmuring voices could be heard somewhere within the house, but Haruhi figured it must have been the television. It was only early morning, and the Fujioka family never had visitors except for-

Haruhi stopped dead in her tracks.

It could not be!

She ran into the kitchen and opened her mouth to scream "leave!" to the Host Club she knew would be chatting casually with her father, but instead she saw a strange man around her father's age. Haruhi hid herself behind the wall instinctively; the tense atmosphere in the small kitchen pushed her out like a magic barrier.

"As I told you, Haruka and I are divorcing," the stranger told Ranka. "Isan, my only daughter- and your blood neice!- is taking this terribly. Yesterday, Keko scolded us."

"Keko?" Ranka's head tilted to one side. Haruhi noticed he was wearing men's clothing.

"Isan's maid," the man said with a wave of his hand. "Apparently, Isan was very upset when Haruka and I were fighting. We want to protect her from that." The man, who Haruhi had deduced was her uncle, had a pained look about his face. He spoke with a quivering voice, as if someone had crushed his world.

_Isan... would she be my cousin?_ Haruhi asked herself silently. The thought seemed absurd. She had never known other relatives, and to suddenly be told of an uncle, aunt, and cousin blew her mind.

Ranka took a sip of his tea and brushed away a loose strand of red hair. "It's funny, big brother. I thought we weren't on speaking terms. You said you didn't want your precious daughter influenced by my lifestyle." His voice held a touch of sugarcoated bitterness, like a dark chocolate bar dipped in sweet calpris.

Ranka's older brother frowned. "R-Ranka," he began, spitting the name out as if he had tasted the aforementioned mix of treats, "mother and father died long ago. Haruka's sister is still recovering after the accident that killed her husband and put her in the comatose state she's been in for over a year. Her brother is in Italy for his honeymoon and won't be back for a month. If Isan stays with us for another month, I'm afraid of what it'll do to her. All Haruka and I do now is fight. She won't even talk to us. If you let her stay for a month, _then_ she can go with Kyo."

"Fine," Ranka sighed. "But I'm doing this for my niece, not my back-stabbing brother."

There was a silence with a meaning Haruhi could not quiet decipher. Then, the man stood and bowed deeply. Ranka seemed unphased by this deep sign of respect and simply waved him away.

As the man passed by Haruhi, she saw his face for the first time. It was pock-marked and wrinkled with the lines of a man who had shown much anxiety and sadness over his life.

"Oh!" her uncle exclaimed as he saw her. "Hello, Haruhi," he added slowly.

"Hi," was all she could think to say.

The stranger pushed his hand into his pockets and took out his wallet. He pulled a bill out of the billfold and held it out for her. "I've missed every birthday."

"Thank you, Gokai," Ranka sang. "You may go."

Uncle Gokai, if Haruhi could call him that, pushed the bill deep into her palm and rushed out of the door, stopping only to put on his shoes.

When he was out of the house, Ranka stood slowly. "Haruhi, please get dressed. You don't want to be late for school. When you get back, you will have a roommate. I'll tell you both the story then."

"Ok, Dad," Haruhi mumbled. She looked down into her open palm to see a hundred dollars, the first gift her uncle had given her.

**--**

"What? A cousin?" the twins sang in unison.

"Yeah, and an uncle, too. I didn't even know they existed." The bustle of lunchtime around the host-girl was muted to her ears. All she could think about was that day's encounter with her father's only brother- or so she suspected to be his only brother.

"Well, it only makes sense. If what you say is true, I mean," Hikaru began.

"If they don't agree on Ranka's life choice, it's not surprising they don't speak to each other," ended Kaoru.

Haruhi just looked down at her bento and gave a pensive, "hmm..."

**--**

"What?" Tamaki yelled. He had the ability to make anything seem as if it were the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard. "Skipping club? But, Haruhi!"

"Yeah, I have to go home, so I can't stay. Sorry, Senpai." Haruhi stared into Tamaki's large, purple eyes and felt an overwhelming compulsion to punch a baby. He was never going to allow her to leave at this rate.

"Bu- bu- bu- bu- bu-!" the king stuttered on dumbly.

"Haruhi," Kyoya said from where he was typing at a desk, "I do believe an explanation is in order. You haven't forgotten your debt, have you?"

Haruhi frowned. "_No, _I haven't, Senpai." Fast as lightening, Haruhi recapped that morning's chaos. As she went over everything, including the conversation and the money, a small group crowded around her.

When she finished, the room was silent.

"Oh my. Poor girl," Kurakano mumbled in her usual empathetic way.

"Her parents are... getting divorced?" Tamaki asked to the air that sat still in the room. Kyoya's eyes darted to his best friend, who no longer placed keeping-Haruhi-at-the-host-club-today as his first priority.

"Yeah, so I gotta go!" Haruhi grumbled. She had noticed Tamaki's change of temperment and was taking this time to advance toward the huge double doors.

"You may go home, Haruhi," Kyoya permitted, knowing Tamaki would say nothing. The blond's thoughts were preoccupied with a lonely girl he had never met.

"Thank you," she grumbled in the same annoyed tone, and slipped out of the room. She jogged through the school and down the streets until she made it to her home. She walked up the wood steps to her door and placed her fingers on the door handle. There were muffled voices from the inside, and Haruhi knew that Isan, her cousin, must be inside.

She opened the door to her house, bracing herself to meet the cousin she never knew.


	2. Family Secrets

As Haruhi walked into her small apartment, she could hear her father speaking comfortingly. "Are you comfortable, Is- oh! Look, Isan-chan, it's Haruhi!"

Haruhi's eyes searched for Isan. They found her sitting at the kitchen table awkwardly, with her knees at her chest, and not underneath her, as was how one should sit around a kitchen table in Japan.

The girl was obviously tall. Her legs were long and thick, unlike Haruhi's chicken legs. She had long, thick brown hair, uncharacteristic to her Japanese face. She wore a blue shirt, dark jeans, and her hair was up in child-like pigtails. Unfamiliar dirty sneakers took their place next to Haruhi's father's dress shoes.

"Hello, Isan. I'm Haruhi." Haruhi stuck her hand out, and Isan gripped it with forced strength.

"Hello, Haruhi." Isan stared at the ground as she spoke, and when Haruhi let go of the handshake, Isan withdrew her hand with nervous speed.

"Well," Ranka began, "if the two of you are finally home, I'll tell you the story of our family. This might be hard for you to hear, Isan. Are you alright?"

"Uhh.. Yes, I'll be fine." She fidgeted slightly in the short silence that was created after her words. She added a mumbled, "thank you," and allowed Ranka to take the floor.

"I knew, when I was a young teenager, that I was gay. So, I told this to my family. I knew they would disagree, and they threw me out of the house and onto the streets."

Ranka was interrupted by a disgusted gasp from Isan. "I never knew Grandpa and Grandma were so mean!"

"They weren't, dear. That's just how things were back then. Anyway, I remember the day. It was noon, very sunny and warm. There were kids playing outside, screaming and yelling. Life was happy for so many people, and my parents told me to pack and to leave. I didn't pack. I just left. Gokai, your father," Ranka said as he tossed an aloof look to Isan, "watched me leave from our bedroom window. It stung. He didn't even object. I thought that he would, at least, be on my side. I was wrong.

"Our parents put my college fund into his bank, and I worked as a waiter and mechanic and other odd jobs to keep the food money and rent coming in. We separated, like all brothers separate, but the betrayal kept the distance between us so much farther than that between normal brothers." Ranka let out a sad sigh and then smiled happily. "But had we not been speaking, and had my parents never kicked me out, I would have gone to college, and I wouldn't have been a waiter. I wouldn't have met Kotoko. I wouldn't have fallen in love, and I wouldn't have Haruhi. But that's a story for another day!"

Ranka's mood grew dark again. "I hadn't talked to him for almost ten years, when he came to Kotoko's funeral. You were on his shoulders, dressed in a little black dress and crying, like a sad angel, Isan." Ranka stopped speaking and was lost in his reverie. Only the two girls who looked into his eyes could understand the sadness and happiness and loneliness that made up that single expression on his face.

"At first, I hated you. You, with Haruka and Gokai. You had the family my little baby could not have anymore. As I held Haruhi's small hand, I looked at you, and I saw the tears that ran down your face, for the aunt you had never met before. I was... moved." Ranka's expression returned to one unexplainable.

Haruhi's heart felt like it was going to break. Her father never let his emotions out when it came to Kotoko. She knew he was always just trying to protect her, and did not want Haruhi to see his pain. Ranka always wanted to be a strong man in front of Haruhi, to set the example of how to deal with the wound of a lost mother. To see him like this hurt her, but at the same time, hearing her father speaking of her mother so freely this way filled her with strength.

"You had been to many funerals before, Isan. Your father is a skilled scientist, and since your mother comes from money, you're in the 'in' crowd. You know everyone, and when anyone who's anyone dies, you're expected at their funeral. You were never a well-behaved child. You had tantrums, but you were spoiled rotten. You behaved well at funerals, though, because you always had a lot of compassion for others. You would see someone crying, and just stop caring about your wants and needs, which is remarkable for a young child. Anyway, there you were, crying for Kotoko. You were loud, too, and I heard you ask your father why you never got to know 'Auntie Kotoko'. Of course, he didn't answer you, so you asked again and again, like children do, and he lost his temper and yelled at you. You began crying hysterically, and you all went home." Ranka let out a laugh.

Before he could go on, the door swung open and six beautiful boys stood in the doorway and took off their shoes.

"Ranka! Hello!" one of the boys with glasses said as he walked over to Ranka.

Ranka stood. "Kyoya! It's so great to see you again!"

"Ranka!" a tall blond interrupted, stepping in between the glasses-boy and Haruhi's father. "You look stunning tod-whatareyouwearing?"

Ranka frowned. "What do you mean, 'what are you wearing'? I'm wearing clothes!"

"But Ranka doesn't look like Ranka without his dress on, huh, Takashi?" a smaller blond asked a stone-faced boy from atop his shoulders.

"No," the stone-faced boy answered without a touch of emotion.

Isan replayed the small boy's words in her head. She elbowed Haruhi gently and whispered, "dress?"

Ranka sighed the I-knew-this-would-happen sigh. "Isan-chan," he began, placing a tender hand on her shoulder, "I'm a professional cross dresser. Does that bother you?"

Isan's eyes widened. "No! Oh, no! I only said anything because I was surprised! Honestly, I think what you do is great!"

Ranka smiled, then disappeared. Moments later, he came back, make-upped, dressed, and hair brushed. "How do I look?"

"Gr-eat!" several of the boys answered.

From her spot next to Isan, Haruhi began growling. She pounded her fist on the table, rattling the teacups, and everyone turned to her. "Will you guys just leave? Didn't you ever stop to think that maybe we didn't want you here?"

The tall blond looked hurt. "You don't want us here, Haruhi?"

Two twins echoed him with a dramatic, "why don't you want us, Haruhi?" They dabbed their eyes with tissues and wailed loudly.

Isan smiled. She had never seen such interesting people before.

Out of the corner of her eye, Haruhi noticed her cousin's smile, and realized it was thanks to the Host Club. While Haruhi had never found them particularly amusing, Isan seemed to think they were a lot of fun. "Fine, fine, you can stay. But you have t- Tamaki-senpai, get out of my cabinets!"

"Look, Hikaru! Kaoru!" Tamaki was saying to the twins, "Mugs from all different areas in Japan!"

"But none from Europe?" one of the twins asked.

"No, Kaoru, she doesn't have a passport!" the twin that must have been Hikaru stated loudly.

Tamaki and Kaoru hushed him and they huddled into a corner and murmured unintelligibly.

Isan stared at this, then turned back to the crowd to see if anyone else was watching the show she was watching. No one else paid any mind to the three in the corner, and she could not help but wonder why.

Haruhi was glaring at the remaining three, who were staring Isan in the eye. Isan noticed this and quickly let her eyes fall to the floor.

"Isan," a voice called. She looked up to see the boy with glasses was the one who addressed her.

"No, Kyoya-senpai! Leave her alone!" Haruhi yelled. "She's had a long day. She doesn't need you to ask her lots of questions!"

Normally, Isan would have objected. Maids, nannies, and her parents always spoke for her. She had no independence at all, but did not want to be asked questions by this Kyoya person.

"Isa-chan, it's nice to meet you," the small blond said with a cherub-like smile.

"Yeah," the boy who held him up agreed.

"Dad," Haruhi began, "can you just please finish your story?"

Ranka looked surprised, but sat back down at his spot. "Yeah, I should."

At the mention of a story, the whole house ended its antics and sat around the table.

"Oh! Story? About what, Ranka?" Tamaki asked.

Ranka pretended not to hear him and began where he left off. "I haven't seen Gokai since the funeral. He came this morning, begging me to take you in. I know your uncle Kyo is in Italy, and your aunt is... not in good condition."

"No, she's not." Isan stared at the table. "She and Uncle Kyo were always really nice to me. I think they wanted me to be loved enough that I wouldn't feel the hole of not having any cousins. It's hard being the only kid. Having to go to all of those boring meets. Being expected to be a grown-up. My parents did nothing but fight. I didn't help any, I know. I made it worse. I did it on purpose, sometimes. Just because it would make them feel as sad as me. I was too little to see I was only making myself sad." Everyone around the table looked at her with a compassion-filled face- all except for Kyoya and that tall one with no emotions. "Oh, but that was a long time ago! I'm alright now, so don't look at me like that!"

Haruhi did not like the fake smile Isan put on her face. Her eyes floated to Tamaki, who also looked concerned.

"But I thought I should tell you something." Isan looked at Ranka. She was not yet sure whether or not it was alright to call him Ranka, or if she should call him uncle or aunt. For the time, she decided not to call him anything. "When Kotoko died, I remember a lot. I don't think you know as much about my dad as you think you do."

The room was silent and somber as Isan went on. "We're not at all religious, but one day we were in America, and on the late news was the story of a terrible hate crime. A young gay girl was killed because of the fact that she was gay. Daddy told me to pray. He told me there was a beautiful angel in heaven who watches over someone special to him, who also happens to be gay." Isan laughed. "At first I though he was having a homosexual fling on the side, but a while later I went to sleep. I had a dream that night, but when I woke up I didn't remember it. I did know- somehow- that it was you he was talking about. I didn't know you were gay, though, so I thought it was my imagination, and I forgot about it. But, if you married Kotoko, why didn't you get on better terms with the family?"

"Well, I called them and told them I was marrying a woman. My father was thrilled, and wanted to welcome me back to the family. But my mother was upset. She said that I was still gay, and that I would leave my wife heartbroken for the first man I saw. She refused to come to the wedding, so my father didn't go, either. To keep them happy, Gokai stayed behind, too."

"That's a sad story," Tamaki said. "That a family should be broken up for that reason."

"But it happens," Ranka told him. "And it's an old matter."

"But you shouldn't give up, Ranka!" Tamaki cried. "Gokai is still your brother!"

Ranka took a sip of his tea and glared at Tamaki over his teacup. "I don't believe this is any of _your_ business, Tamaki." He put the cup down and made a face. "It's cold."

Tamaki huddled close to himself. "Sorry."

Not a single sound came from any of the mouths of the nine people who sat around the Fujioka's family table. The story sank in to everyone's minds. No one knew what to say to make this alright.

Isan took a deep breath. "Everything fixes itself," she said, "and if this is meant to be fixed, it will be fixed." She stood and collected the teacups and empty plates (everyone had helped themselves to something). She walked over to the sink and washed the dishes.

Ranka let out a laugh. "You do the dishes?"

"Yes."

"Don't maids do them for you?" The twins asked.

"Yes."

Koyoya pushed up his glasses and said, "I'm surprised you collected them like that. It looked like it was a habit."

"I do the dishes a lot now." Isan tried to keep her voice from trembling. "They fight after dinner. You can't hear them in the kitchen." She felt her nose tickle- a sure sign she would cry soon. She wiggled her face and tried to keep the tears away. How silly she felt, each time she cried over feuding parents.

Tamaki happened to see her glassy eyes. He stood and hugged her from behind. Isan turned her head to look at him and he whispered into her ear, "we'll protect you. I promise."

Her body went numb, and she dropped a cup into the sudsy water. She leaned into him, and let him support her.

No one had ever promised to protect her before. No one but her father, who always broke his promises and fought more and more.

The tears she had tried to keep at bay overflowed and ran down her cheeks. She felt weak and childish, but she believed this boy who suddenly held her heart in his hands.

He did not ask her if she was alright, and he did not tell her it was okay. He just stood there, stiff as a rock, and held her like a guardian angel.

"I'm sorry," Isan hiccuped when the tears stopped.

"It's alright," Tamaki said and led her back to the table gently. He sat down next to her, in a protective sort of way that made Isan's confidence in him to grow.

They all began talking and laughing about people Isan did not know and experiences Isan had not been there for, but she felt very comfortable.

Tamaki was laughing a lot.


	3. Just Your Resident Mind Reader

The boys eventually left (after much encouragement from a tired Haruhi) and the Fujioka family was left alone.

"Are they really your friends, Haruhi?" Isan asked as she looked at Haruhi's slender shoulders.

"I guess," was Haruhi's reluctant answer.

"I like them." Isan wanted to ask if Haruhi thought they liked her, but she was too shy to ask. Suddenly, her fair cheeks reddened. "Tamaki's very nice."

Something indecipherable flashed through Haruhi's eyes. Something that looked like panic, but also looked like pain. She was quiet, then took a shallow breath. ".....Yeah, he is."

Isan narrowed her eyes in thought, and pondered the unknown flash. In her peripheral vision, Ranka fidgeted. Isan's eyes drifted toward him, and the uneasy and annoyed look in his eyes told her everything she had yet to discover by herself. There was something between the two, something that was new and yet to blossom; something still yet to be understood by either of the youths, but only by those around them. And that something they had made Ranka very unhappy.

A small, knowing smile spread across Isan's lips, and her feelings for Tamaki melted into nothing, like chocolate bars in the oven. It had been early in her infatuation, and hurting her newly-met cousin was something against Isan's morals.

"I'd like to meet him," she went on, covering her tracks. "I've never known someone who could speak their mind that way. It's inspiring." Her tone had changed to a very matter-of-fact one, instead of a the dreamy sigh it had held only moments ago.

Ranka sat up straight. _This girl is going to throw Haruhi for a loop, _he predicted wisely, _if she can read her like that._

**--**

It was morning. The two girls had stayed up late the past night, whispering and bonding. Haruhi had had a lot of fun. Even though she knew she would be tired in school the next morning, she was happy to get to know Isan more.

Isan dressed in a bright yellow dress that fell into a bell by her waist. Haruhi dressed in the boy's uniform, and explained the situation briefly to her cousin, who shrugged it off and offered to pay the debt for her.

"No," Haruhi insisted. "Our family doesn't get along well. I don't want to cause any problems."

Isan did not persist. She had the same fears.

**--**

Once at school, Isan sat in front of Haruhi (she got into the same class as her cousin at the request of the Host Club). The twins were unwilling to give up their prized seats next to Haurhi, and Isan did not care much. She rested her chin on her hand, and stared at the birds as they flew outside of the window, as the teacher went on in his lecture about something she didn't care about.

She took lazy notes in messy script throughout all of the classes, except math, through which she tried to pay attention. English class came, and she fell asleep.

**--**

"What did you think of today's lessons, Isan?" Haruhi asked as Isan tagged along to the Host Club. Her voice echoed off the long, empty hallway. Everyone was in the library studying or socializing, or in their clubs working. No one was in the halls now, so the four were alone.

"She wasn't listening," Hikaru said from his spot behind Haruhi.

"Yeah, she was staring at the birds all day," Kaoru went on from behind Isan.

"I took notes!" Isan grumbled. "It's not like I wasn't paying any attention." She had slowly come out of her shell around the two, who had thrown things at her throughout class whenever her eyes drifted away from the teacher. It was the "penalty" for not paying attention. Isan couldn't help but notice that if they were watching her, they weren't paying attention, either.

"How do you expect to get good grades that way?" the two asked in sync.

Isan repeated the important bits of information the teacher had written on the chalkboard as they continued to the third music room.

Hikaru pretended to be impressed and let out a whistle. "Wow. What a memory on you."

Isan shrugged. "I'll forget it tomorrow."

The door was opened and rose petals flew out and kissed their faces and clothes. "You're here!" sang a voice from inside.

Haruhi and the twins walked inside with annoyed sighs, but Isan picked up three petals and put them in her pocket for her scrapbook later.

"What's up, Lord?" Hikaru asked boredly.

"Is Isan with you? Isan! Hello!" Tamaki danced over to her in his flamboyantly happy way. Roses appeared behind him as if they seeped from his pores instead of sweat.

Isan watched with bored wonder. "Hello," she said shyly. She had crawled right back into her shell, shy around this person who she admired.

He grabbed her hands and kissed them gently. A deep blush spread across her face. "Can I... uhh... help you?"

Tamaki disregarded the comment- or he simply didn't hear it- and went on. "Isan Fujioka! What a wonderful thing it is to see you here!"

Isan looked flabbergasted. "Oh? Ok." She tore her eyes away from Tamaki and they danced nervously around the floor by her feet before she added a quick, "thanks," and pulled away.

There was the sound of a notebook slapping closed. "Tamaki, stop frightening her. The customers will be here soon."

"Where's Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai?" Haruhi asked to no one in particular. Tamaki's attention drifted from Isan to Haruhi, then to Kyoya, who spoke next.

"They're just getting some cake. Oh, here they are now."

Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai walked through the back doors of the third music room- doors Isan hadn't noticed before. The tall one must have been Mori. The name just fit him better than the smaller, cuter one. Mori was holding boxes upon boxes of cakes, while the smaller one, from his permanent spot on Mori's shoulders, ate a large cake in a few large bites.

Everyone crowded around Tamaki's large chair, except Isan who sat to the side on a comfortable couch in the corner, where she had promised to sit until Haruhi was ready to go home. Suddenly, there was an influx of giggling girls, and Isan watched closely.

"Isa-chan!" the small blond, who Isan now knew to be Honey-senpai from the girls in the room who beckoned him to them. "I brought you some cake! Do you like it?" He held out a plate with a large slab of chocolate cake on it. He handed it to her and smiled brightly. "Here you are!"

"Yeah, I like it a lot. Thank you." The cake looked too chocolatey, but she accepted it without any trace of ungratefulness, and ate it before his expecting, curious eyes.

**--**

Club ended, and all of the guests left. The hosts gathered around Isan to find out her thoughts.

"What did you think, Isan?" Kyoya asked.

Isan shrugged. "I think you run a nice club."

"Really! You like the Host Club?" Tamaki asked. His eyes were wide as a puppy's and his tone was as happy as a child's.

Isan smiled and nodded. "It's really nice."

"What did you think, Isa-chan?" Honey-senpai asked.

"I think it's nice," she answered, repeating the answer she had given Kyoya.

"No, I mean of the people."

"What?"

"I saw you watching everyone. You looked like you were studying." Honey-sampai climbed on top of Mori-sempai's shoulders as he said this. He acted like a child, not even looking into the eyes of the person he was talking to.

"I.. uhhh," Isan blushed. They probably thought she was weird. "I wasn't really studying them. Just observing."

"What did you observe?" Honey-sempai persisted.

"N-nothing," she lied. They'd have thought she was strange, or over-analyzing it if she told them that the twin's guests were there for excitement, Haruhi's guests were there because they were in love, Tamaki's guests were there to be pampered, Kyoya's guests were there to be calmed down, Honey-senpai's guests were there because their maternal instincts called them there, and Mori-senpai's guests were there for the eye candy.

And, it was too obvious.

Honey-senpai watched her with wide, understanding eyes.

"Senpai, I'm going home, now, ok?" Haruhi asked with a sigh. Her question sounded much more like a demand to Isan's ears and she couldn't help but look surprised.

Mitskuni noticed this, too, but kept quiet. He was impressed by this person who had the ability to read people as well as he could. _Maybe even as well as Tamaki, or better. Isa-chan is the type to wear her heart on her sleeve. She blushes easily and her facial expressions and body language tell what she's thinking. I feel as though I can read her mind through her body, and she can read everyone else's in their silence._

Honey kicked Mori lightly in his shoulder, and the taller boy answered simply, "Yeah," as if he knew exactly what Honey was going to say.


	4. Kyoya

The next day at school, Isan rushed through the large main hallway of Ouran. Haruhi had already gone to club, but Isan had been busy asking the teacher a few questions in math, her worst subject. Although Isan was a good student in most areas, math was a strange combination of boring and numbers that her inquisitive mind never allowed to settle. She was more interested in things with a deeper meaning, like theology or literature or psychology. Math was just as it was, and there was nothing else left to ponder, and that left her uninterested. Now that the problem was cleared up (well, not really, but she believed she'd get it eventually), she was on her way to the third music room, where her friends would be waiting.

As she ran down the red carpet that stifled the sounds of her shoes, someone came around the corner. He stood in the shadow for a moment, before almost walking into her.

Isan stopped abruptly to talk to the person. "Senpai?"

"Isan. There you are. Tamaki sent me out looking for you," he said with a sigh.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I was just speaking to the teacher. Was he looking for me?"

"No, it's alright. Haruhi told him you had a few questions, but he was afraid you'd get lost. I was on break, so I came in Haruhi's place." His glasses flashed in an intimidating way. "Do you have problems in math, Isan?"

"Well, yeah." She shrugged casually. "It doesn't make sense to me. My father's disappointed, because he wanted me to be a scientist, too, but I'll never make it. I need a tutor. The level math I'm taking is ridiculously complicated."

"Oh? What are you taking?"

"Algebra."

Kyoya chuckled hollowly at the blunt way the word came out. She was in the lowest form of math that the school offered. He, of course, was in advanced statistics. "Well, Isan, I'll tutor you."

"Oh, no! It's okay, I don't need help. I can do it. I'll ask Haruhi if I have any questions." Isan shook her head furiously, her long brown ponytail whipping her her cheeks at the absurd idea. She barely knew Kyoya, and she did not want to burden him that way. Besides, something about the way he carried himself said that being in debt to him would be a terrifying thing.

"Haruhi needs to stay at the top of her class, or she'll be expelled. She doesn't have time to tutor you if she's studying. Tamaki has the attention span of a rodent. Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai have too many clubs to juggle. Kaoru failed math, and Hikaru is... well, he's Hikaru." Kyoya said the last part as if that explained everything. And it did, to Isan, but an upperclassman passerby stopped for a moment as if the sentence made no sense before continuing on his way. "I, however, have the time. Maybe not the patience, but I have the time." Kyoya smiled, and it made Isan nervous. It was evil, as if he had a plan hatching, or as if he was doing this against his will. Maybe both.

Isan wanted to ask something along the lines of _then why are you going to do it if you don't want to? _but her mouth would not open. She shrugged and nodded, without a word. This Kyoya had something up his sleeve, and the mystery kept Isan intrigued in him.

"Alright. We'll start today, for half an hour after club." They walked together to where the Host Club was waiting in complete silence.

**--**

Club was over and the cluster of girls in the room was thinning out with fulfilled "good bye"s following them out the doors.

"Isan, please come over here to where it's quiet," Kyoya called, waving to a few girls he had been hosting moments before. Isan obediently followed him to a corner of the room where there were no people. He was sitting at a little desk with a pad of paper and a few pencils, and an extra copy of the Algebra text book Isan used in class, opened to page they had been working on earlier that day. "Now," he said once she got there, "what do you not understand?" He flipped the book around so that she could read it.

Isan bit her lower lip and shrugged. The numbers looked like a foreign language she only slightly recognized. "All of it?"

**--**

An hour later, Kyoya walked out of the music room, where the host members were waiting, with the exception of Honey and Mori, who were busy at other clubs. As he entered the hallway, four heads looked up at him simultaneously. Tamaki had had tears in his eyes staring at a non-complying Haruhi, and the twins had been laughing. The mood sombered, except for Tamaki who wined like a puppy dog.

Kyoya was going to _kill _someone.

"How was it, Senpai?" Haruhi asked. She ignored the fact that he had been tutoring her cousin a half an hour beyond the set time.

"That girl," Kyoya began; his index finger was pushed angrily to the bridge of his nose and his body trembled, "is going to be the death of me!"

"That bad, huh?" the twins asked in sync.

Isan peeked out from behind the door. "Uhmm.. I still don't get it, senpai."

Kyoya turned to her furiously, and she retreated back into the room with a scared yelp and the slam of the door, which echoed down the hallway.

**--**

This continued for a few weeks, until Isan began to get a little better. Each day she improved, and Kyoya left the room a little less agitated. Eventually, the two left the room laughing.

"But Daddy does believe that I'll be a scientist," Isan was saying as the two met the rest of the hosts in the hallway. She had been being tutors for about four weeks. Within that time, the teacher and student had become friends.

Kyoya laughed, much to the surprise of everyone within earshot. "That's quite witty, Isan. "

"What's with those two?" Haruhi asked the twins in a hushed tone.

The brothers shrugged.

"Who knows what's on Kyoya-senpai's mind," Hikaru answered.

"I think Kyo-chan might be beginning to like Isa-chan," Honey-senpai said from next to Mori-senpai. The martial arts clubs were training this week for a competition, and so there was no formal "club" for five days, is it was a free-for-all. Honey and Mori were taking a few hours off to spend some extra time with the other hosts.

Tamaki's eyes were set far off, although he was staring right at the two laughing in the doorway. "Yeah, I've never seen Kyoya this happy with someone in such a short period of time. I wonder what happened between them?"

**--**

"So," Haruhi began as the cousins walked home, "you and Kyoya are very good friends, huh?"

Isan blushed and picked up her pace a little. "Hm? No, I don't think so."

"You get along well," Haruhi noted as she quickened to keep up. Her shorter legs had to move twice as fast to walk side-by-side with Isan, and she noticed for the first time their height difference. _She's as tall as Hikaru and Kaoru, _Haruhi thought. She suddenly felt very short.

"I suppose."

"Hm." With that, Haruhi said no more. It was clear Isan wasn't going to answer, and she was still brooding over her height (or lackthereof).

**--**

The Host Club opened its doors for the day. Rose petals flew out to greet Isan at the door and she walked into the room.

"Isan! Welcome," Tamaki yelled. He was sitting with some upperclassman, who stared daggers into Isan who dared take Tamaki's attention from her. She had long blond hair combed to the side, and arrogant blue eyes. Her dress was pulled up a little so that her slender thigh was showing to Tamaki. That made Isan disgusted. She hated this type of girl. She probably hadn't been loved enough as a child.

Just because she could, Isan floated over to Tamaki and placed a quick kiss on his cheek, who reddened with the shock. "Hi, senpai. I'm going to grab a piece of cake and sit until club is over, ok?"

"Sure." Tamaki grabbed the closest piece of cake off of the table- his customer's piece. "Strawberry shortcake?"

"Perfect." Isan watched the eyes of the girl as she said it.

"Tamaki! That was my cake!" the girl wined in an attempt to be cute. Her hand found its way up Tamaki's arm to his chin, while her other one found its way around his back.

"It's alright, princess! There's plenty of cake." Tamaki broke out of the girl's grasp and leaned over the arm of the couch to yell, "Honey-senpai! Bring over a piece of strawberry shortcake, will you?"

"But I want that one!" she complained as another piece was set in front of her.

Isan took this time to take a bite, and then another. Her eyes met with this girl's, and a fight had begun.

**--**

"Isan," Kyoya asked as they sat down to do math, "why did you pick a fight with Hanayomi-san?" The room around them was empty and quiet, so that Isan would be able to concentrate completely.

"I'm on my period."

The bluntness of the touchy subject took Kyoya by surprise, but he adjusted his glasses and settled himself. "And that's an excuse? Her family is one of the wealthiest in the entire school."

Isan narrowed her eyes, but the threat didn't even phase Kyoya.

"Let's do math, shall we?" he asked.

"Hanayomi? Hanayomi. I'll remember that."

"You didn't even know her name?"

Isan shook her head and stood up. "I don't feel like doing this today."

Kyoya sighed. "Fine. But at least study a little tonight." And then he added quickly, "and do something about that attitude. I don't need you cat fighting all of Tamaki's customers."

It angered Isan that there was not even a hint of jealousy in his tone. Although, she hadn't done it because Hanayomi had been Tamaki's customer, specifically. "I only did it 'cause she looked at me wrong," she mumbled.

Kyoya chuckled. "Well, she's very popular. You're in for it if you don't apologize."

"Apologize my ass."

"Maybe you should stay home for the rest of the week." Kyoya smiled, but it was very annoyed.

Isan left him in the music room. She walked by everyone waiting for her, ignoring their calls.

As she and Haruhi walked home, Isan kept her strides long and quick, and Haruhi soon fell behind, and did not try to keep up.


	5. Cat Fight

"Stupid!" Isan yelled. She threw a fluffy, pink pillow across the bedroom she shared with Haruhi. "Stupid Kyoya!" She punched her other pillow, a bright yellow one, until a small tear ripped and the feathers fell out. A few jumped a few inches into the air with the force of her punches, but drifted back to the floor like paratroopers in a breeze.

Haruhi walked into their bedroom with a towel over her head from the shower she had just come out of. "Isan," she paused, but her cousin did not even look up, "what are you doing?"

"Stupid, stupid, _stupid!"_ Isan was chanting over and over again in time with her punches.

Haruhi rubbed her wet hair with the towel and walked over to her bed. "Why don't you just tell Kyoya you're mad at him?"

"No! That would defeat the purpose! He's supposed to _know!"_

"How is he going to just _know _if you don't _tell _him?"

Isan ceased punching her pillow and turned to Haruhi dumbly. "Haruhi, you don't understand a thing!" she teased with a slight chuckle. "You're so oblivious to things you do every day."

Haruhi did not understand, and Isan knew it.

"It's like..." Isan tapped her finger to her chin, "how you can tell the twins apart."

"It's because they're different."

"They look alike, though."

"On the outside. But on the inside, they're different." Haruhi cocked her head to one side. "It's really subtle, but if you pay attention, you'll see it."

"That's my point."

Haruhi's eyes widened. They sparkled with knowing and then set themselves back into their normal size and glassiness.

"Haruhi," Isan began, her voice wavering a little and her eyes floating to her cousin, "what do you think of Tamaki?"

"Uhh... He's nice. I guess. And he's a little stupid. But he tries really hard for everyone, even though he's too oblivious to see that he can hurt a lot more than he can help." Her eyes turned a little cold and annoyed, but they softened as she said, "but when he helps, he... I don't know... I can't really explain it in words. Why?"

Isan smiled. "No reason."

**--**

The next day at school, the Fujiokas walked together to the large Ouran High School. They mingled with the people around them, and went to class, then to the third music room, where rose petals kissed their bodies as they entered.

"Isan!" Tamaki called. He beckoned her to him, and she obeyed. "Wouldn't Haruhi look cute in this?" he squealed, holding up a picture of a pink, ruffly dress. It was very plain, and the small line of pearls across the breast from the right shoulder to the left rib was the only decoration. It's sleeves were made like Morticia's from the Adam's Family in an elegant, beautiful way, and it came down to the ankles.

"No, Boss! This one!" One of the twins held up another magazine. This dress was ice blue, with puffy shoulders that would fall down the arm lazily. By the front of the waist down, there was a darker blue part that fell down to the bottom in an elegant tent-shape. It went to the knees and out, like a 50s poodle skirt. The bust came down to expose the chest in a modern, pretty way.

"Kaoru, Boss, you've both got it wrong!" Hikaru said (process of elimination was used to figure this out). "It's this one she'd look the best in!" This dress was white. It had spaghetti straps, which held the plain dress up. It curled under the bust with a small pink ribbon on the tuck by the ribs with a diamond in the middle. The dress simply fell from there to the floor, except for a light slit up the calf.

All of the dresses were quite modest. Typical and predictable. Isan giggled.

"Well? Which one?" they asked in sync.

Isan thought a moment. "All of them. They're all really pretty. Tamaki, yours could be worn to a dance or event. Koaru, she could wear yours on a date, and Hikaru, yours could be worn on a special occasion, like a wedding or something."

The three of them were vexed by this answer, even the twins, who were gurus in fashion.

"Different dresses for different occasions?" Tamaki asked.

"Yeah. You know, depending on how dressy it is."

"Oh! It's like wearing a different color lipstick everyday!" Honey chimed in.

"Yes!" Tamaki and the twins exclaimed before Isan could argue.

"Oh, but Haru-chan doesn't wear make-up."

And, as if this made perfect sense, everyone in the the conversation- with the exception of Isan- went into a deep depression.

Isan shook her head and gave up on the four. How Haruhi not wearing make-up and dresses for different occasions connected at all made no sense to her, but it made all the sense in the world to them. She walked away laughing heartily.

"Isan, I hope you're in good spirits today," Kyoya sang as Isan passed by.

Isan walked right by him without acknowledging him. Although she didn't see it, she could feel his smirk behind her back.

"Isa-chan and Kyo-chan must be fighting!" Honey exclaimed to Mori, chipper than ever, as if he hadn't just had a breakdown.

"Yeah."

"Oh, but it kinda looks like Isa-chan is the one angry. Hey, Kyo-chan," Honey-senpai said in a louder voice, "what did you do to Isa-chan?"

Kyoya let out a dramatic sigh, although it was not dramatic enough to be obvious to any ear but one that knew him well. "I didn't do a thing, Honey-senpai. She's just naturally like this."

Isan twirled on her heels. "Ex-_cuse _me, Kyoya?" She strutted over to him and stopped when her face was inches from his own. "I'm _what, _now?"

"I said, you're naturally like this. Crabby. Immature." He looked down upon her from behind glasses that mirrored her reflection to her. "And most of all, petty."

Angry tears formed and slid down the sides of her right cheek (for some reason, her left eye didn't want to cry). "You! You, you, you! You're such a jerk, Kyoya!" She left the room, her fingers itching.

**--**

"Kyoya," Tamaki let out. No other words followed it.

He chuckled. "It's good for her."

"Huh? What is?" Honey asked.

"Getting out some anger or frustration. Have you noticed? She keeps it bottled up inside a lot. Things bother her and wound her deeply, but she keeps it all in. It was boiling over a little yesterday with Hanayomi. Didn't you see it?"

"Yeah, I saw saw it." Tamaki nodded and turned toward the door. "But I didn't know why."

"There's a lot going on right now with her. It probably wasn't anything more that 'she looked at me wrong'. To keep the customers from getting beaten by her misdirected rage, I figured I'd at least get her angry, so that she'd take it out on me."

Haruhi sighed. "We're not going to have any pillows left."

**--**

_Why did he say that? I know he didn't mean it, but I don't know why he said it. Kyoya always has a reason for everything. It wasn't just something that slipped out accidentally. It was planned out. _Isan shook her head violently. _And why did I react like that! Oh! I made myself look like a crabby, immature, petty person! -Wait. Where did I hear those bef- Damn! It's exactly as Kyoya said! _

Isan was right outside of Ouran, sitting in the shade of the large building, with her knees up to her chest and her head buried in them.

_But why would he say that? Is he mad at me? I don't think so. He shouldn't be. Oh, maybe he is, for what I did to that girl. What was her name? Hana-something. I kinda feel bad about that. I didn't mean to. Well, I did at the time, but I wasn't in my right mind._

She looked up to the sounds of footsteps. They weren't from any of the hosts; she could tell by the lightness and quickness of the steps.

"Hey, Fujioka."

Isan met the eyes of Hanayomi. She was in the shade of two girls she brought with her. Instantly put into a bad mood, Isan let her head sink back down.

"Hey! I'm talking to you!"

"Whaaaaat?" she mumbled, without picking up her head. She tried to get her mind back onto her problems, but it wandered now that she had been distracted.

"You were mean to Cana, we heard," on of the girls said.

"And that's unforgivable. Do you know who she is? I bet not, orphan!" said the other.

"I'm not an orphan," Isan retorted without showing much interest. "My parents are alive."

"But they're splitting up, huh? And that's just as bad!" the first one said. Isan looked up and blinked in the sunlight. This girl was to Hanayomi's right, with long brown hair that reached to her waist. She had large green eyes in a mean snicker of an expression. It ruined her pretty face.

"It doesn't matter." Isan tried to keep her voice from shaking, and succeeded, a little. Of course it mattered, but she wasn't about to let these bullies know that.

The other girl laughed. She was to Hanayomi's left. She had a short bob cut of dark brown hair. Her eyes were a coal black and she looked like a demon when she smiled. "Don't lie. You're living like a poor girl, now, huh? You're living with that cousin of yours. Is it a girl, or a boy? Hm, not that it really matters to us. A commoner is a commoner. Even their blood is disgusting."

Isan looked up at the girl with a cocked eyebrow. "Too many vampire books?" Isan stood, and had about an inch of height on the demon-girl, who was the tallest. "Look, I really don't care _what _jokes you crack on Haruhi's gender, or her- uhhhhhh," Isan quickly corrected herself from the error, "his blood, or whatever. That doesn't bother me." She was about to say something about her parents divorce not bothering her, but it did, and she didn't want to bring it back up in case they had forgotten it.

"Well," Hanayomi began. She said nothing for a long time. Obviously Isan's aloofness had struck her by surprise and she had nothing to back herself up with. "Well, you... you just watch out. I won't let you get away with kissing Tamaki, or stealing my cake!"

**--**

A week went by, but there was no sign of the three girls. Actually, that was the worst part. Always looking behind your shoulder. Always waiting for the surprise attack that never seems to come.

It was torture.

And then, one week later, it came.

**--**

Isan had been with her Fujioka relatives for a total of four weeks and two days. Uncle Kyo would be coming in five days, and she knew that.

Five days.

Isan tore her eyes away from her calendar, which had thirty red x's on as many little squares. It had been so much fun those past four weeks and two days.

"Isan, are you ok?" Haruhi asked.

Isan looked up and smiled. "Yep!" She threw her problems to the back of her mind. "Ready?"

"Mmhmm."

"Ok, let's go."

As the two walked out of the door, a water balloon flew and missed Haruhi's face by inches. Another whirled past Isan and into the house before she had the chance to close the door.

Ranka raised an eyebrow, but shrugged. "Kids these days," he muttered. "Well, The two of you go to school, and I'll clean this up. Have a good day!"

"You too, Dad."

"Bye."

Once at school, the water balloon incident was forgotten. At club, however, it was brought up again.

Isan ran around the club, doing errands to pass the time and ease the chores on Haruhi. She brought a tray of tea to Tamaki, whose guest happened to be Hanayomi.

Isan remembered her name, now. "Here's your tea, Tamaki. And you, too," Isan smiled, "Cana."

Hanayomi's eyes widened. "What did you call me?"

"I called you Cana. Isn't that your name?"

Cana stood up stiffly. "Don't be so familiar with me, underclassman! Or with Tamaki! Call us senpai!"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I thought we were friends. You know, we've played together and everything."

"What?"

"The water balloon fight we had. Remember it?"

Cana turned red and she averted her eyes. "No, I don't."

"Isan, what's going on?" Tamaki asked during the lul.

"Nothing. I'm just talking with my friend." Isan walked away.

"Isan."

Isan turned to see Kyoya watching her angrily. Then, she noticed everyone was watching her.

She sighed. "You'd fight her, too," she said loudly, "if she drove by and threw water balloons at you, like a coward."

It was silent for another moment, before the girls began to whisper.

"Did she do it?"

"I wouldn't put it past her."

"No way! Cana wouldn't do that!"

"You're right-" giggle "Nana and Maiko would, though."

The room exploded in giggles. Isan decided Nana and Maiko were Cana's two lackeys, and let out a giggle herself.

Cana's eyes filled with tears, and Isan suddenly stopped laughing. She backed away from the mean stares she was getting and tripped over the coffee table, spilling hot tea on her. She stood and walked away, head lowered, tail between her legs, and crying.

Isan suddenly felt very, very low.

Tamaki turned to her. His eyes were not accusing, but disappointed, and it cut her to the soul. He turned from her, and did not speak another word to her for the rest of the day.

"Wow," one twin said to her as he snaked up beside her and rested on her left shoulder.

"You're secretly cruel, huh?" the other one asked as he snaked up to her right shoulder.

"No, I'm not," she said, but the words sounded like a lie, even though she wanted them to be true.

"That was mean, Isa-chan," Honey said to her calmly, also without accusation. "I think you should apologize. Even if Cana was mean to you. Be the bigger person. It'll make you both feel better. Right, Takashi?"

"Yeah."

Isan looked at her brown pumps and couldn't help but think they were _really _cute shoes.

"You're not listening, are you?" the twin to her left asked flatly.

"I am! And I'll apologize. I feel really bad. I do." Isan wiggled uncomfortably.

"This is what I meant," Kyoya began, "when I told you to stay home."

Isan stiffened, but didn't yell or lose her temper at all. She just walked out, with Haruhi rushing behind her.

**--**

"I'm really sorry," Isan mumbled.

Cana wiped tears away and looked at her with large, sad eyes.

It made Isan sick.

_I just... don't like her. At all._

"You should be!" the demon-girl yelled. "You started it, anyway. Right, Nana?"

"Yeah! That was terrible of you!" Nana yelled.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm sorry." _But you _did _throw water balloons at me and my cousin._

"Well, let's just forget this, ok?" Cana asked.

Isan instantly became suspicious. If it was one thing her mother told her about the cut-throat world of business, it was that _nothing _was solved that easily. "Really?"

"Yeah," Cana said with a smirk that told Isan otherwise, "really."

**--**

Isan and Haruhi walked home without another disturbance.

"You've been really quiet, Haruhi," Isan mumbled. _Say something. _

"Yeah, I was just thinking. I'm not going to judge you for getting into a fight. I haven't known you for a long time, but I think I know you well enough to know you're not a bad person by nature. I just don't know why you did it, that's all."

"I was PMSing." Somehow, that didn't sound like a good excuse anymore.

"Oh. I know that feeling," Haruhi empathized.

Somehow, that made everything a lot better.

"Thanks."

Haruhi was distracted. "Huh? What _is_ that? Oh- No problem."

"What's what?"

"That," Haruhi said, pointing to their door.

"Oh. Iunno."

The two walked to the door, where a flier was stapled. The flier was a piece of notebook paper. It said in capital letters "DIE!".

Haruhi gasped. "I bet Hanayomi did this."

Isan cocked an eyebrow. "Oh," she said, ripping it off the door and going inside.

The girls walked to their room and Haruhi said behind the closed door, "what are you going to do?"

"Me? Nothing. I don't really care. This stuff happened a lot at my old school. Rivals and stuff. We did this to each other all the time. I was surprised, actually, that Ouran wasn't like that."

"Oh? You're not worried?"

"Not really."

The nonchalantness in Isan's voice did not quench Haruhi's troubles at all. "Oh," she said, and she let the matter drop.

* * *

Like it? Dislike it? Please leave a review if you want to see more of it!


	6. Whirlwind

Isan dressed for school and marked off her calendar. _Four days._

"What are you doing, Isan?" Haruhi asked, peeking over her shoulder.

"Nothing," Isan replied, hiding the calendar under her futon. She didn't want Haruhi to see the calendar or the dates she marked off. Haruhi might feel bad if she found out Isan was so attached to this home that she didn't want to go with her uncle.

**--**_  
_

That morning at school, Haruhi had a talk with Kyoya while Isan was bustling around the club room on an all-out search for a piece of chocolate cake. She told him all about the paper on their door, and the water balloons, and her worry for her cousin, even though things like that happened at her old school.

Kyoya pushed up his glasses. "Do you feel you're in danger, Haruhi?"

"Not me, but I'm worried about Isan."

Kyoya let out a small, subconscious sigh. "I'll take care of it."

**--**

"Hanayomi-san," Kyoya asked as he got the girl alone in the hallway. He had skipped Isan's tutoring session for the day, much to her dismay.

"Oh! Kyoya!" She turned to him. Maiko and Nana were behind her, and they turned as well.

"Here to protect Fujioka?"

Kyoya smiled. "You're a sharp one."

Hanaomi sighed and placed one hand on her hip, which jutted out to the side. "What do you want to do? Make a deal with me? She started it, you know. I'm not just going to let her get away with it."

"Oh, I think you will."

"What?"

"Cana- may I call you that? I think that you know just how very powerful the Host Club is compared to you three." Kyoya eyed them, and the three took a wary step back. "This is not the first time we have stood together to protect one of our own, and if you even try to harm Isan, life will be very difficult for you."

"Why do you protect her?" Cana screamed. "She was mean to me! Why is everyone on her side?"

"Because," a voice called from the shadows, "she is special to Haruhi, and so she is special to us." Tamaki walked out from the shadow. "Although she was mean to you, and although she started a fight with you, I do hope you can forgive her. She's going through a very tough time, and there is a lot going through her mind right now."

"T-Tamaki!" Hanayomi stuttered. "Why don't you scold her?"

"I will have a serious talk with her. But she is very brittle right now."

"I have problems, too!"

"And I'm sorry. But you should see that her problems effect her deeply. All I'm asking is that you'll be kind to her." Tamaki stroked Hanayomi's face gently. "For me. Please, princess?"

Cana swallowed loudly. "M-mmhmm."

Tamaki smiled. "Thank you."

**--**

"I LIKE YOU!"

A sigh.

"I like you."

A grumble

"Uhmm, I just wanted to tell you that I like you."

A slapping noise.

"You're hot. -No, stupid!"

A loud groan.

Isan shook her head. _Wrong, wrong, wrong!_ She sighed and stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. She leaned on the sink, feeling pathetic. It was useless. There was no way she could tell him something like this.

**--**

Kyoya was typing at this computer the next day at school.

"Uhhm, Senpai?" Isan began weakly.

Kyoya looked up, surprised to see Isan. _Senpai? _"What is it?"

"I-" _This is it, Isan! C'mon, Champ, you can do it! _"I-" Her heart pounded so strongly her body swayed with each pump. She was sure Kyoya could hear it and she eyed him carefully. If he could hear it, he did not let on. "Nevermind!" she squeaked, and ran away.

Kyoya watched her go, and then turned back to his computer.

"No, no, no!"

Kyoya looked up again to see Isan coming back to him.

Isan took a deep breath. Playing with her yellow dress nervously, she muttered, "I l-" she held the l sound for a second or two as she gathered her courage. "l-l-l-"

Kyoya pushed his glasses up.

"L-l-l-" Isan squatted down and hugged her knees in humiliation. Kyoya's eyes followed her slowly.

"This isn't fair. You know what I want to say," she muttered.

Kyoya turned back to his computer. "I haven't the foggiest, actually."

"I like you," she muttered into her knees.

"Hm? What was that? You were muttering, and I was typing. I didn't hear you."

"I..." Isan took in a deep breath and held it for a few seconds. "I like you!" she yelled out.

"There. That wasn't so hard, was it?" Kyoya turned his laptop toward her.

It was off. He hadn't really been typing a thing. He had just been pretending.

"You were teasing me! I knew you knew!" Isan felt close to crying.

"You don't do this much, do you?"

Isan played with her dress. "I have a few times, but they all laughed at me."

Kyoya petted her head. "Don't worry. I won't laugh at you. You're a good girl, but I can't return your feelings. I'm sorry."

Isan sighed. "Yeah, I know."

**--**

"Rejected?" Haruhi asked. She and Isan sat on the big couch in the music room.

Isan sighed. "Yeah.

"Wow. Kyoya-senpai was mean, huh?" One of the twins asked. The two were leaning on the back of the couch on either side of the girls.

"No, he was really nice," Isan defended.

"Really?" Haruhi asked. She pictured him laughing, or using Isan's crush to his advantage.

"Yeah," Isan said, staring into her lap. "You guys don't give him enough credit."

"Are you ok?" the other twin asked.

Isan nodded. It hurt, and she didn't really want to talk anymore.

The twins lost interest and walked away, and Haruhi rubbed her back. "It'll be ok," her cousin cooed.

Suddenly, the twins were back."We have an idea!"

"What is it?" Haruhi asked flatly.

"We're bored, so let's have fun!" one said.

"So don't be your usual party pooper self, ok?" the other muttered.

Haruhi grumbled in reply.

"Let's go!" They pulled Isan and Haruhi out of the room, just as Kyoya walked in with two algebra text books.

"They're leaving?" he asked Tamaki.

"They probably figure it'll upset Isan to have time alone with you, so they're taking her out," he answered with a smile on his face like one a father would have at his daughter's wedding. "They've grown a lot."

Kyoya put the books down. "They have. I think they've become kinder than me."

**--**

The two girls were thrown into a limo. It was sleek and black, with three seats facing forward and three facing backward, so the six could face each other. There was a bottle of wine on either side in ice, and shiny wine glasses on a little bar to the left. The lights hit them so that the spotless crystal sparkled like beautiful water. Behind the twins the driver sat, but there was a tinted window that cut them front off from the back, so that the four teens had privacy. Above them was a sun roof that was already open. The sun shined through, making the glasses sparkle even more.

"Hikaru," Haruhi began, looking at the twin on their right, "Kaoru," she looked to the left, "where are you taking us?"

The two smiled as Isan put it in her memory which twin was where. "That's a secret," they said in unison with smiles on their faces that made Isan itch for some mischief.

The car rode quickly. Haruhi and the twins yelled over a few things, but Isan just looked out of the tinted windows, brooding, at the trees that blurred past.

"Hey, Isan," Kaoru called, "why aren't you having fun?"

Isan wanted to smile, but the concern he showed made her just want to cry.

The twins' eyebrows turned upward sadly.

"I am!" she exclaimed. She tried to laugh, but it sounded hollow.

"Guys, just leave her alone for a while," Haruhi suggested.

"No, we're bored. Be our toy," Hikaru demanded.

Isan didn't know how to react to that, so she just sat still, and the conversation melted into an awkward silence.

Finally, the car stopped. The twins pushed Isan and Haruhi out of the car before jumping out themselves.

Haruhi looked around. "Hey, where are we?" she asked. She turned, and saw a large building. "A mall?"

"Yeah," one of the brothers said. They had gotten out and jumbled around, so Isan no longer could tell the difference. Haruhi, however, knew it was Hikaru who was speaking. She knew that they had brought Isan out to get her mind off of her rejection, and that Hikaru would be first to come up with an excuse. "We were bored, so we wanted to come to the mall."

"But this isn't just _any _mall," Kaoru continued. "It's not a commoner's mall. This is _our _mall. Rich peoples' mall."

"Oh, I see," Haruhi answered flatly. She looked at the building again. It was all windows that shined like the glasses had in the limo. Everything that had to do with the rich people seemed to shine. In fact, they shined so brightly, one could not even see inside. The mall was oval shaped and a few stories high. It had a large revolving door in the front, and a parking lot in front, which wasn't very large. It was surrounded by trees that reached to its ceiling, and Haruhi realized they were right off the main highway. There were no other buildings around, just a highway, cars, and the mall.

"Let's go, Isan!" one of them said. "You too, Haruhi!"

The boys dragged the girls inside, which was beautiful. It was cramped with expensive clothing stores and chocolate stores. There was a pet store for small dogs, and a store for furniture. There was a large chandelier on the bottom floor, and everyone walking around was in beautiful clothing. There were mothers with children in expensive carriages and teenage girls with chihuahuas in their large purses. A movie star walked by, but his name slipped Haruhi's mind.

The floor and the walls were white marble. Upstairs, all of the walls were glass. In the center was a small wishing well filled with 500 yen coins. There were two escalators- one up and one down, and there was one flight of stairs to each floor, and to the right was a large glass and gold elevator that a little boy and his mother were waiting for. To the left down the wall was a waterfall. The water was falling from the fourth story and fell into a marble pond, that was roped off by a gold chain to keep the children away.

"This place is big," Haruhi commented.

"Eh, it's alright," Hikaru answered with a shrug. "The one uptown is better, but this one was closer. I don't like staying in the car too long."

Haruhi smiled and looked at Isan, who was playing at the waterfall with Kaoru and giggling. _Liar._

Hikaru and Haruhi walked over to Kaoru and Isan.

"C'mon, you're gonna get in trouble," Haruhi urged.

"Nah." Hikaru splashed Haruhi, who let out an angry _hey!_. "They don't care, as long as we shop here. Have you been here before, Isan?"

"Nope. I've been to the one uptown, though. The Roman, right? I've been there. Not here."

"Let's go looking at the stores," Kaoru said, pointing to a clothes store.

The three followed.

"Hey, it's a men's store," Haruhi grumbled. The walls were lined with men's shirts, men's pants, men's shoes, and men's underwear. There was a little table full of men's magazines, too. It smelled like new clothes and men's cologne. The clothes were all in cubbies organized by size, and the floor was a red carpet. The windows were up high in the square room. In the middle was a cashier inside of an oak octogon that came up to the man's waist and had the cash register on it. Candy bars lined the eight short walls. Red rope outlined where everyone should line up to pay. There was only one other shopper in there, by the far right wall. On the back to the right were cubbies full of hats. By the front of the store were two large chairs on each side of the entrance.

"So? We'll go with you to your girly store after," Hikaru yelled over his shoulder as he held up a black button-up t-shirt with a dragon design up the front. He was by the left-hand wall.

Isan walked up behind him. "Doesn't look like something you'd wear."

He folded it up lazily and threw it back into its oak cubby. "You know my fashion sense, but you don't know which twin I am, do you?"

"Not a clue," she answered while shaking her head.

"I'm Hikaru. Remember that."

Isan frowned. "Fine."

Haruhi sat at the front of the store in a plush, red seat boredly while Isan jumped over to Kaoru.

"Whatcha buying?"

Kaoru turned. "Hm, I like this hat. What do you think?" He put on a black hat with a red buckle around the rim against the head part.

"Looks good. Actually, it looks _very _good. But I didn't know you were into a more punk style."

His eyes lit up with the compliment. "Really?"

Isan nodded. "Yeah."

He examined himself in the small mirror. "Well, styles don't really matter to me. I just get what I like."

"Hurry up, Kaoru!" Hikaru yelled. "I'm paying now. Are you getting that or not?"

"Coming!" Kaoru yelled back. He grabbed Isan by the wrist and pulled her over to the cashier, who rung up that hat at what Haruhi thought to be a ridiculous amount of money. The other three just shrugged at it, knowing that fashion was money. As they left the store, Hikaru showed off his new pair of jeans, dark and ripped by the knee.

"I used to have a pair like them by the same brand," Hikaru began, "but _someone-"_ he looked at Kaoru, who looked away innocently,_ "_stole them. They were the original, too. He's good friends with our parents."

The rest of the day passed by. They went into store after store, buying things they didn't need or would never wear. There was a book store upstairs they spent the most time in as Isan scouted through the manga section.

"I didn't know you liked manga," one of the twins said as he searched the isle next to her.

"Which one are you?" she asked.

"Kaoru."

"Hm."

"Still can't tell us apart?"

"Not confidently, but I thought so."

"Really? Why?"

"Well, every time I pass by Hikaru, he demands I tell him which one he is."

Kaoru laughed. "Yeah, he just wants you to tell us apart like Haruhi can."

"It's not easy. I mean," Isan talked with her hands, "I know who's who during the brotherly love act, but not when you're just around. You can walk out of a car and she just _knows. _It's incredible. I don't know how she does that._"  
_

"It's probably because of our parts."

"Your what?"

"We part our hair differently."

"Y-you what?"

Kaoru laughed. "I knew you hadn't noticed! Open your eyes, Isan. You always miss things that are right in front of you!"

"I do not! I notice things."

"Yeah, like emotions and stuff. You're like Haruhi and the boss when it comes to that. But, Isan... What was Haruhi wearing for pajamas?"

Isan shrugged. "How should I know?"

"What did _you _wear?"

This time, she blushed with embarrassment. "I- I dunno." She scowled and shoved the book she had in her hand into its slot, missing once, much to Kaoru's amusement. "Do you remember what you and Hikaru wore? I bet you don't. I bet you 500 yen you don't!"

"Of course I do," he answered flatly, opening his palm, waiting for the money. "Only an idiot wouldn't. I wore orange pants and Hikaru sleeps naked."

Isan jutted her lips out. "Ah." The isle was quiet for a long time. "A~anyway," she sang, holding the a sound for a long time.

"Money?"

"Oh, right!" she opened her change purse. "Hey, that was really easy for you to remember! You barely wore anything!"

Kaoru smiled and stuck his face close to hers. "So? Money, please."

Isan balled her hands into fists and scowled and Kaoru ran. She chased after him, whizzing through tables stacked with a display of "new releases" or "popular" books, as was on the signs in the middle of the wooden tables.

"What are they doing?" Haruhi asked Hikaru, who had been in the isle in front of his brother and Isan looking at action manga. Haruhi had been in the cooking section and had been walking to meet them when Isan chased Kaoru through her isle, nearly knocking her down.

"Having some fun," Hikaru mumbled into his book.

Haruhi frowned and took her stack of cook books to the checkout.

"You got money for those?" Hikaru yelled.

"Yeah, I think so," was the reply.

Hikaru could hear her doing math out loud then a quiet, "Aww, and I really wanted this one. But I need these two; Dad suggested meals from them."

"No, no," Haruhi heard from behind her. She turned to see Hikaru pull out his wallet. "I got it."

"Are you sure? It's 5340 yen."

"Yeah, it's no big deal. Just pocket change."

Haruhi frowned as Hikaru paid for her books. Just as he took the bag from the lady behind the counter, there was a loud, "Look out!" and a huge _boom! bang! crash! crash! _and then something that sounded like a sea of books falling, followed by a "run, Isan! Hurry; go!"and a cluster of giggles as Kaoru and Isan ran past them and out of the store.

"I'm afraid to look," Haruhi muttered. As Hikaru grabbed her and pulled her out of the store, she saw the second to last book shelf had hit the last book shelf, and the two were leaning against the back wall.

"Are you two crazy?" Hikaru yelled. "You could have gotten hurt!"

Kaoru was still laughing and Isan was almost passed out from lack of oxygen from running and laughing.

"That was the _best! _Did you see the look on her face?" Kaoru asked, catching his breath and wiping away a tear.

Isan calmed down. "Clean up on isle seven!"

The two exploded into laughter again.

_"You guys! _We could get in a lot of trouble for that!" Haruhi yelled.

"Haruhi, they've got money coming out of the wazoo. They'll be fine," Isan told her with a soft pat to her head. "Don't worry."

"Yeah, we didn't do it on purpose. Actually, we didn't do it at all," Kaoru clarified. "I was running from her, but she's really slow. I was on the other side of the room, so she ran straight across to get to me. There was a person kneeling in the isle, so she tried to jump over him, but kicked him. She apologized, but he got mad anyway, and pushed her down. So, this other guy saw and got to him while I helped her up. The other guy pushed the guy who had pushed her into the bookcase, and it fell over and hit the other one. The guy that helped Isan yelled, 'Look out!' and then I yelled, 'run, Isan, run!'" Kaoru took a breath and said, "So, we didn't do anything, really."

"They sound innocent to me," Hikaru said to Haruhi. He stood and took water bottles out of the bar and threw it one to everyone.

Haruhi grabbed her water. "What about that guy that saved you?"

"I dunno," Hikaru answered. "He's an idiot if he didn't run, too."

They dropped Haruhi and Isan off and sped away. It was almost dinner time, so Haruhi got right to cooking. Isan ran to her bedroom and marked off her calendar.

_Three days. Starting tomorrow, there's only three days left. Then, I go home forever._

The Fujioka family ate dinner together. It was chicken, but Isan wouldn't have known. Her mind was elsewhere. She didn't even remember eating when Haruhi took her plate and washed the dishes for the first time in weeks.

"Haruhi," Isan began as the two girls were under the blankets in their beds.

Haruhi, who was reading, just gave an uninterested, "Hm?"

"I think I'm a whore."

Haruhi closed the book on her finger and rolled onto her side to look at her cousin. "What?"

"I think I'm a dirty, disgusting, can't-make-my-mind-up whore."

There was a pause. Haruhi turned onto her back and continued reading.

"You're not even going to listen to my problems?"

"You're not a _whore. _I don't know what's going on in your head, but you're definitely not a _whore."_

Isan mumbled and sighed. "I like someone else."

"That doesn't make you a whore."

"But I _just _got rejected, and I'm already over it."

"I bet it just means you didn't really like him." Haruhi thought for a little while. "I mean, it's not like there's anything wrong with changing your mind. He already said he couldn't have feelings for you. Besides, you _did _have a _lot_ of fun with Kaoru today. He suits you better."

"H-how did you know?"

Haruhi shrugged. "I just knew."

"Does he know?"

"I don't think so."

Isan sat up. "Oh no. I bet he knows!" She fell back down and kicked. "I'm so obvious! Damn! He probably thinks I'm a _whore!"_

Haruhi turned off the light behind her little bed with a heavy sigh. "Goodnight."

**--**

"You've been improving very well, but you're still not grasping onto new concepts as well as I had hoped you would," Kyoya told her as they left that afternoon's tutoring session.

"I'm trying! I'm trying!" Isan half frowned. "It's not easy."

Kyoya chuckled, but his laughter was cut short as he opened the door that led the two to the hallway.

"Isan?"

Kyoya and Isan looked up to see a man with dark brown hair and a dark brown mustache and a foreign woman with long, blond hair and blue eyes standing in the midst of the rest of the confused host members.

Isan felt her body go numb. "Uncle Kyo?"

"Isan!" he ran to hug her. He pulled away from the unreturned hug quickly and turned to the woman. "This is Hailey. She's your new aunt! Say hello, ok, Isan?"

"Why are you here?" she asked.

"We came home early. We weren't doing anything, so we wanted to come get you a few days early, as a surprise! Now, say hello to your aunt!"

Isan frowned, but bowed to hide it. Aunt Hailey rushed over and simply grabbed Isan into a hug. "Let's not be so formal," she said in broken Japanese, "we should be friends. We're family."

Isan eyed the woman. She had her sun-colored hair all up in a messy bun. Her eyes were very blue, like the water in a clear spring. Her nose was sharp and thin and small; all of her features were very small, except her bust (which was in no way real) and the huge diamonds she had all over her body. Her earrings hung down and nearly touched her shoulders. They were in a hollow diamond shape, made up of good-sized diamonds. Her necklace was a huge diamond, bigger than any gem or stone Isan had ever seen. It was about as big as a newborn kitten, which is really small when it's a cat, but very large when it's a diamond. The chain was made of diamonds, and all around her neck was a sparkling gothic choker. Her engagement ring had a rather large diamond on it, but it didn't hold a candle to that necklace.

Isan was surprised she wasn't bent over with it's weight.

"Hi, Aunt Hailey," Isan mumbled very softly. She seemed like a sweet woman, but it seemed like Uncle Kyo only married her for her money. She could tell by the way he stared at that large diamond. Or maybe at her boobs?

_They are very close together, so it's easy to be mistaken_, Isan thought, _and both can stir a man up like no other thing in the world. Money, sex... But that's not really the point._

Isan began to get some feeling back in her body, when her uncle announced, "you can come live with us, now!"

Isan looked up at him helplessly, hoping to give him the hint without saying out loud that she didn't want to go. "I can?"

Uncle Kyo was completely oblivious. "Yes, my dear! And you can go back to your old school, with your old friends!"

Isan smiled weakly. She did not want to hurt his feelings, but she also did not want to leave. She looked to Haruhi for help, but she was looking at the floor.

_They only wanted me for a while. I'm a burden on them, remember? Their financial situation isn't great, so I can't stay forever, even if Daddy or Mom paid them. Their house is too small. It was just temporary..._

Blinking away tears of loneliness and regret, Isan smiled. "Ok," was all she said, for another word from her mouth would have brought on sobs. She waved to her friends, who waved back.

"Goodbye, Isan," Tamaki said sadly

Uncle Kyo led her by her shoulders out, and her aunt followed behind them.

"Bye," Kaoru whispered.

* * *

You know what I never clarified?

Isan means secret. I thought it was a suitable name for her, since Haruhi and the Host Club (basically the main characters) didn't know she existed.

Gokai, her father, means misunderstanding.

I made this chapter mega long because I'm going on vacation, and won't be on for at least two weeks, most likely more. Hope you like it. Please review!


	7. Determination and A Loss of Trust

Isan dressed in a short, pleaded gray skirt and a white shirt with a gray blazer over it. The uniform she had known so well now felt so wrong. She felt cold in the dreary colors and wished for the warmth of the yellow dress she loved to wear.

It felt so wrong being in the clouds when she was used to being in the sun.

She got into a limo, which took her to Tengoku Academy, a large school like Ouran without the pampered feel. The teachers were all old nuns. Their faces were stuck in a serious expression, much like Mori's, but lacking the cute little companion and love of small things. They whacked sleeping students with rulers, yet gave the students enough homework to keep them up until all hours of the night. If you daydreamed, you got detention.

That meant, of course, Isan stayed after almost every day. She had learned to make her eyes follow the teacher as she paced the classroom to seem as if she was paying attention, but one month at the happy-go-lucky Ouran, and that skill had deteriorated into obvious pensiveness that those teachers never scolded her for.

Before lunch, she had a ticket for detention and the mood of a cat dropped in water.

She ignored her limo driver and instead walked home as he followed her in the car centimeters behind her all the way home.

**--**

Haruhi sat between the twins, right behind an empty desk. No one had said much to her other than the hosts and Kurakano, who were all very empathetic. They all missed Isan as well.

Haruhi hadn't wanted Isan to leave. She had tried to open her mouth, tried to tell her cousin to stay, but nothing came out. _Why? _Haruhi did not know the reason of why she did not speak up and tell Isan to not leave. Maybe she was afraid that Isan wanted to go.

Maybe she was scared that Isan wanted to be with her real family more than a pair of cross-dressing strangers and a pack of boys that used her as a plaything to carry tea sets around a music room and serve cake to rich girls with no troubles at all.

When Isan had gone so willingly to her uncle, Haruhi had felt crushed.

_It's got to be better off this way._

**--**

Kaoru watched the birds flying by the window. The teacher was babbling on about something or other, but that didn't matter. He sighed lightly and shifted the position of his head on his hand to look straight ahead. He tried to concentrate on the board, to change the course of his thoughts. Anything that would make him stop thinking about this parting, because it was just so sad. He felt his eyes begin to sting and he closed them tightly. He wished he was too strong to cry, because he was used to loneliness, but a tear fell down his face anyway and left a small puddle on the wooden desk.

He could never have Haruhi. He would eventually lose Hikaru. And now Isan was gone, too.

_Maybe it's my fate to be alone._

**--**

As if by magic, Hikaru's eyes darted over to his brother. In the light that floated through the window, Hikaru could tell Kaoru's eyes were glassy, and the expression on his face pulled at Hikaru's heartstrings.

He had noticed Kaoru was acting a little strangely around Isan when the bookshelves fell. It sounded more less like something Koaru would do and more like something Hikaru would do while showing off. He had known, but he didn't say anything. He had tried to ignore it. Bringing it up or thinking about it would have made him feel as if he had lost Kaoru forever. He just let it go, and when Isan had to leave, Hikaru had felt a little relieved, to be honest. He had Kaoru by his side again, but Kaoru hadn't eaten dinner that night, or breakfast the next morning. By lunch he had been starving, and by dinner last night he had realized that the house had noticed his depression and ate to fool them.

But you can't fool your family.

It had been a quiet past two nights. No mischief. No laughter. Barely any talking. It was usually Hikaru himself who had the mood swings, but Kaoru was never so emotional. He was level-headed and rational. He smiled through his sadness and lied to keep others from worrying.

_Isan leaving was a big mistake._

**--  
**

Honey was sitting in class, staring down at Usa-chan. He remembered when Isa-chan first came, and when he had given her a piece of cake. Her initial reaction was for her eyes to widen in almost shock and for the corners of her mouth to go down in a little frown, but she ate it anyway, and acted as if she had loved it.

_She didn't even like it, but she ate it because she thought it would have upset me, _he thought. He had accepted her completely from that moment, knowing that she would never knowingly hurt one of the frail host club members. From after that, he had seen her every move, watching carefully like a mother over her child. She sensed what others were feeling, but her emotions often got the better of her, like a small child. Everyone in the club accentuated her flaws and virtues, and she did the same to each person she talked to.

_When Kyoya had said he couldn't return her feelings, she didn't argue. She said, "yeah, I know" and walked away. I wonder..._ Honey narrowed his eyes in thought and swung his legs back and fourth, _was she aware that Kyo-chan likes Haru-chan? I thought that only Takashi and I could see. I should have known she would have realized. Even the smallest gesture... she saw everything. She saw right through us all. But Hika-chan and Kao-chan's hearts opened a little more with her around. _

Mitskuni sighed and stared at the desk.

_Will the others be ok without her? _

**--**

Mori watched Honey as he fidgeted uncomfortably in his chair.

_Isan must be on everybody's minds._

**--**

Tamaki left for the bathroom. He sat on a toilet seat and pulled his knees up to his chest. He placed his chin on his knees and thought.

Tamaki had wanted to yell out as Isan walked away, but the look on Haruhi's face told him to keep quiet. Her face held a mix of loneliness and strength that confused him as to whether or not she wanted Isan to stay or go.

When Haruhi had been so depressed the next day, Tamaki knew she had just been putting on a brave face.

_If only I had called to her..._

**--**

Kyoya sighed. Of course he missed Isan, but it really wasn't the end of the world. _Tamaki shouldn't be so sad. We can always go visit her, and this was going to happen from the very beginning! _

The night before, Kyoya had gotten her address and phone number from her old school, Tengoku Academy. They could go after school today.

Kyoya looked at Tamaki's empty seat, and could envision each of the host's reactions in his mind. His thoughts lingered a while on Haruhi's sadness, but he didn't even notice the compassion that struck him at her situation. It was as if it wasn't even there.

_I feel like it won't be enough to just visit her._

**--**

Isan made it home just as the first few drops of rain began to drop down. The sky was as gray as her blazer, even though it had been sunny just that morning.

She walked into her uncle's house, a large western-style home with doors on hinges that swung open and shut. She went down the intricate hallway a few steps and turned right into a large living room with a fireplace and a fluffy white rug.

To the left, there was a dining room, where Uncle Kyo and Aunt Hailey were waiting.

"Isan!" Kyo yelled, as if she had startled him. "Come here, please."

His tone told her something was wrong. She did not move, although her heart beat quickly, and she went through a list of things that could have happened. _I got a bad grade. We're broke. We're moving. Someone's dead._

"Isan, sweetheart. Please come here," Hailey beckoned softly. Hailey stood, and walked over to her. She touched Isan's hand, and it prickled as if it had been asleep. She guided Isan to the table, and sat her down in her chair.

"Isan," Uncle Kyo began, "we love you. You know that, right?"

That only made her worry even more.

"And we'll always be here for you."

Isan felt a panic attack coming on.

"Honey," Hailey began in her broken Japanese, "your mother is getting remarried."

Isan lost all feeling in her body. "What? But the divorce isn't even finalized yet!"

"It appears that she has been having an affair," Uncle Kyo said.

"What?" Isan knew her voice sounded helpless, like a little pup whimpering in the snow.

"She's got an engagement ring already. She's coming here, so you can meet him."

There was a knock on the door, and her mother walked in, followed by a strange man holding a large teddy bear.

"Hi, Isan!" her mother yelled and ran over to hug her. "This is Tomo."

The man named Tomo walked over to Isan and stuck out his hand, which Isan did not accept. "Hello, Isan. I've heard so much about you." He handed her the large teddy bear, which Isan also did not accept.

"Look, Isan. I know what this seems like, but I really love Tomo. I was forced into a marriage with your father. It was never going to work out," Haruka blurted out in her own defense.

Isan just stared up at her mother with wide eyes. "How _could _you?"

**--**

As Kyoya predicted, the Host Club was closed for the day. This hadn't happened since the fight between the twins a week or two before Isan had arrived.

No one spoke. Each movement or sniffle echoed in the room. Kyoya tried to say something, but the words were thick as butter in his throat, and he found he couldn't even speak. The air in the room was too somber.

"Why is everyone else so sad?" Haruhi asked.

"We all want her to be here, Haruhi," Hikaru answered her in a sarcastic, smart-ass tone.

Kaoru did not follow up his brother's sentence, and Honey watched him carefully and sadly.

"Why don't you just tell her?" Mori suggested for Honey's benefit.

There was a quiet pause and Haruhi said, "because she obviously wanted to go back."

"That's not true, Haru-chan," Honey said. "She was really sad when you didn't tell her to stay."

"What?" Haruhi looked up at Honey with disbelieving eyes. "Then why didn't you tell her?"

"Because I wasn't the one she wanted to hear from."

Haruhi groaned. "She wanted to stay?" She balled her fists. "Isan is so stupid! She could have stayed with us!"

"Well, maybe she thought you wanted her to leave," Tamaki rationalized.

"I never said I wanted her to leave!"

Tamaki shrugged. "You didn't tell her you wanted her to stay, either."

The room was quiet until Kaoru stood up and said, "well let's get her back!"

_

* * *

_Well, please leave comments or suggestions! I want a few reviews until I write up another chapter, so I'll wait for three. Then the next chapter will come up.


	8. Tell me why, Brother, my Brother

"Isan, what are you talking about, sweetie?" her mother asked her.

The innocent act was making her absolutely sick. She wanted to scream at her mother, but the disbelief of the whole situation stunned her. She shook her head, glaring at her mother, whose eyes were helpless; despicable. They called to Isan. They begged her to love her, but she hated her mother at this moment, and probably forever.

"So this is where you were going when you were supposed to be visiting Auntie Sakurako in the hospital?"

Haruka's eyes widened. "No! No, that's... I would never do that! I always went to visit my sister when I said I was going!"

Isan bit her lips, narrowed her tear-filled eyes and nodded. "So you just made up other excuses to lie to Daddy?"

Her mother chuckled a little and said, "Honey, you don't understand! I never loved him! He never loved me! Our families decided this when we were _children_! Instead of being angry, you should be grateful we never betrothed _you_ to some stranger!"

Isan walked right by Haruka, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw someone else.

She saw Tomo. He was handsome, and from the pained look in his eyes, she could tell he was a kind person who truly loved her lying bitch of a mother. _Poor bastard._ Although she could tell he had never intended to harm her the way she did, she hated him. Hated him! Hated him for breaking up her parents and destroying her already crumbling family. Hated him for being alive. Hated his brown hair. Hated his annoying little wrinkle at the eyebrow. _What's with that, anyway? Worry much?_

She just **hated **him.

**--**

The Host Club held large umbrellas over their heads- except Honey who had a small pink one with bunny ears coming off the top and yellow frills around the edges- and piled into one single limo, one after the other. There were only six seats in the car, and so Haruhi sat on the floor, much to the dismay of Tamaki, who wanted her on his lap.

"Please, Haruhi?" he begged.

The car sped off towards Isan's uncle's house with the directions Kyoya had given the driver. Haruhi was thrown against Honey's legs with the force.

Haruhi sat up. "Sorry, Honey-senpai." Then she turned to Tamaki. "No way."

"Don't sit there, Haru-shan!" Honey yelled, and moved onto Mori's lap. "You can sit there," he said, patting his old seat.

Mori looked at the small boy on his lap. "That's dangerous, Mitsukuni,"

"But Haru-chan can't sit on the floor! Takashi! You're all wet!"

Haruhi sat on Honey's discarded seat. "Thanks, Honey-senpai." She had a window seat. She stared out of the glass and shivered, unaware that she was under the stern gaze of Tamaki, who was also worried about a possible thunder storm.

"No problem, Haru-chan!" Honey looked up at Mori. "You're all wet!" He took off his small coat and placed it over his cousin's larger body. "You should have kept the umbrella over your left side more!"

"I'm fine."

"Hmm."

"Hey, Kaoru. Are you excited to see Isan?" Hikaru asked with a suggestive elbow gab into his twin's ribs.

"Stop it! Hikaru! That's so mean! Stop teasing me!"

"Oh, Kaoru! I'm sorry!" Hikaru grabbed Kaoru close to him. "I'm just... a little jealous, I suppose."

"There's no reason to be." Kaoru's eyes widened. "You're all wet, too! Hikaru, you'll get sick! Then what will I do?"

Hikaru's face lowered a little to his brother's. "I won't be sick if you promise to keep me warm, Kaoru."

"I will. I always will."

"Save it for the customer's, alright?" Kyoya asked without looking up from his laptop.

The twins stuck their tongues out at him.

They pulled up to a western-style, white estate. Haruhi noticed that even in the rain, the house shined.

The gate was bronze, and it opened automatically for the limo. In the middle where the gates met, there was a bronze-plate with the word  
_Kyo _that kept them together. As the limo pulled up, one side of the plate fell and the gates began to pull apart slowly.

Hikaru watched them with little patience. Finally, he jumped out of the car. "Coming?"

Everyone looked at each other, and they call jumped out of the car into the pouring rain. The limo had pulled up into the large parking lot of white stones before they had realized they had forgotten their umbrellas.

**--**

Isan stomped up the many marble stairs, over the carpeted hallway, and to her room. She turned the jade doorknob and walked into her bedroom, where she immediately kicked off her shoes against the wall. It was a large room. Her round bed took up most of the space, and the canopy above it almost scraped the high ceiling. A large screen television stood to the left of the door and to the right along the other wall was the closet. The room was painted blue, and the floor was hard wood. Plushies and teddy bears littered the floor in a childish way, along with books and anime covers and loose CDs. To the left along that far wall was a book case filled with manga and to the left of the television was a modern-looking DVD shelf filled with anime.

She pulled her hair out of its ponytail. She had a headache and just wanted to take a nap.

On either side of her bed post were windows. She felt too high up to jump, and she couldn't climb down the wall, especially now that they were slick with rain.

"Isan, please!" Her mother barged in, crying. Isan sat up in a startle as her mother went on in a frantic, "please don't do this to me!"

"What about what you did to Daddy?"

"We didn't-"

"Shut up with that! Did Daddy ever do this to _you_?"

".... No."

"Then why did you do it to him?" Isan's voice cracked a little, but she refused to cry.

"I..."

"What? Fucking what? 'I' what?"

Haruka rubbed her right arm. "Maybe I'm weaker than he is."

"And what? Do you expect me to accept him?"

"Yes. Maybe call him dad?"

"Are you kidding?"

"No! You'll like him, I swear! He-"

Angry, Isan walked past her, pushing her out of the way with her shoulder and ran out of her room, and down the steps in quick hops ignoring her mother's call. She walked up the hallway and out the door into the rain. She didn't care that her hair was flat against her back from the rain or that she didn't have shoes on.

She parted her heavy hair out of her face and ran cautiously. The pebbles pricked her feet, but she could not go back for shoes now.

She cried. The rain hid her tears, although she had no one to hide them from. Her mother hadn't followed her into the rain.

"Isan!"

She looked back to the house with a start. The door was closed, and the house looked dead. Then, she turned quickly to see the host club.

Tamaki waved gleefully. "Isan!"

She looked at the twins carefully. The rain had patted down their hair, and so their parts were nonexistent. One had a smirk, and he looked almost like a pixie with the trouble in his eyes. The other had a look, somewhat of relief. He smiled faintly, and the smile made Isan want to run into his arms.

But she did not.

_He doesn't like me._

"Isan, sweetie!"

Isan turned to see her mother in the doorway. She was all dressed up in a raincoat and leather high-heeled boots. She had a kerchief over her hair, and the raincoat's hood over that. Tomo was behind her, holding an umbrella over her head. He was getting soaked.

Isan's first reaction was to run.

She flew off past the hosts at a speed she hadn't thought possible for her nonathletic body. She took off down the street, with the hosts at her heels. Although she was running fast, the boys were faster. Haruhi, however, was far behind.

Isan was losing speed quickly, and stopped to catch her breath. She grabbed onto the high iron fence to keep upright. Her mother waded after her in the boots, running in small, unsteady steps. Haruhi caught up and the host club surrounded her. After a few large breaths that chilled her throat and lungs like ice, she took off at a weak jog. Her legs felt like jelly and she wanted to stop.

"Isan, please go back," Kaoru begged. "You'll get sick out here."

He was walking next to her even though she was trying her hardest to run.

"No! I wanna go somewhere else!" she sobbed.

He placed a hand on her shoulder as they moved. "We'll get you a car. Come back."

She stopped in her tracks and stomped her foot a few times. "No! I don't want to go back to that house!"

"Why? Isan, what happened?"

"Mo-" She sobbed and began crying. Kaoru grabbed her in a hug, and she held onto his sleeve. Her legs gave out and Kaoru tightened his grip on her and lowered her to the sidewalk gently. By this time, Haruka had caught up with her daughter.

A lightening bolt lit the sky. Haruhi whimpered, but it wasn't heard over the clap of thunder.

Tamaki put his arm over Haruhi's slender shoulders. "Isan, please come to the house with us! Please!"

Isan pushed Kaoru away and he fell back onto the wet pavement. "No!" She stood up and ran across the street in an attempt to dodge them and get away from her mother. Her legs were not strong, and her movements were slow.

Haruka was about to run after her when Hikaru blocked her path. "Don't you think you've done enough?" he asked.

Haruka said nothing.

Tamaki ran after her, just as more thunder boomed. He heard Haruhi shriek, and knew he had to get her back quickly.

"Isan, please listen!" he begged. He grabbed her by the wrist and forced her to turn to him.

"No!" She hit him and kicked him. "Leave me alone! Don't make me go back! I hate you, Tamaki, I hate you! Just let me _go!"_

_Something terrible is making her say these things. But Haruhi... _Lightening flashed, and brought Tamaki back to reality. He looked over to his friends, who were all watching the scene. No one else had noticed Haruhi had pressed herself up against the fence in fear. She did not run for concern of her cousin.

"Haruhi is scared of thunder, but she's staying here for you! Look at her!" he yelled to Isan, who didn't stop hitting him.

"Then go back alone! I can't go back there! Aren't you listening to me? Haruhi this and Haruhi that! That's all you guys care about! I can't go back there with her and her lover! Leave me alone, Tamaki!" _I'm sorry, Tamaki._

Thunder.

Isan flinched and closed her eyes tightly.

Tamaki stopped yelling and let out a whisper. "Haruhi?".

_Is she really scared? _She opened one eye to see Haruhi walking toward her in slow steps, as if she were injured.

Lightening.

Haruhi jumped and stopped in the middle of the street. She put her arms over her ears as the thunder boomed almost deafeningly. When it subsided, she continued, slowly but surely. The sky lit as thunder boomed and Haruhi ran into Isan's arms.

Isan pulled off her wet blazer and put it over Haruhi's head and then gave her cousin a hug. There was thunder again, and Haruhi tightened her grip on Isan, who did the same. A limo slid up next to them, and all of the host members piled inside.

Haruka and Tomo were already walking home.

The limo turned around and beat the forbidden couple home.

The teenagers rushed into the mansion, the thunder quickly rolling away. The boys were tossed some of Kyo's clothes to wear. Hailey, who was a little taller than Haruhi, gave her a pair of pajamas. Isan changed into her own clothes. Hailey made tea for the wet teenagers and took out eight fluffy towels. She found the same amounts of plastic tubs used by the maids while cleaning the floors and cleaned them with soap while the hosts changed and drank tea, and filled each one with hot water for their feet. All of this was ready by the time they were changed and were in the living room.

"Thank you," Isan whispered. She held on to the corners of the towel around her shoulders.

Hailey smiled. "You're welcome!"

Tomo, dressed in Kyo's clothing, rushed down the stairs behind Haruka. Haruka sat in a puffy chair and Tomo stood by her. She called to a maid who walked by. "I'll have some tea, as well. And maybe some nice hot water for my feet, too."

Hailey looked at Kyo, who nodded.

"No, dear, don't bring any tea right now," Hailey said to the maid, who nodded and rushed off to the maids' quarters. "Hailey, Tomo, I want you out of my house."

"What?" Haruka asked. He gripped the arms of the chair and pushed her body forward. "Excuse me?"

"We talked about it and, we want you away from Isan. You've made her miserable, bringing home your lover and asking her to call him dad, after just announcing that you are divorcing her father. It's selfish beyond belief. And Tomo, you should be ashamed. Fooling around with a married woman." Hailey eyed him. "I've allowed you to change into Kyo's clothing because you were soaked. That is the last drop of kindness that you will receive from me."

"I am Isan's mother!" Haruka looked at her daughter then back to her sister-in-law. "Fine! She will leave with me!"

"No! No, I won't!" Isan yelled, her voice gravelly from screaming earlier.

"Yes, you will young lady."

"No! I hate you!"

Haruka stood and walked over to her daughter. She brought her hand up and swiftly across her daughter's face. "Don't you ever say that to me! Hurry; we're leaving!"

"No!" Isan ran up to the bathroom and locked the door.

Hailey ran over and pulled Haruka aside. "Isan is upset right now. Let her stay here a night and cool down, alright? Then come back after school tomorrow."

Haruka frowned, but took the advice. She and Tomo left. Hailey and Kyo went to the study in the basement to make a few calls to keep Isan. Coincidentally, Kyo's friend was a judge in the court of law, and there was a good possibility that Kyo could bribe him into making a favorable ruling.

The hosts were left alone.

"One," the twins began, "good looks that attract attention."

"Two," Kyoya fell in line with, "fearless rich men."

"Three," Mori said, "gentlemanship that-"

"cannot overlook evil in this world," Honey ended.

"It is a host's job to make women happy," Tamaki said. He stood up, splashing water over the carpet.

"If we can't fix this, we fail as hosts," Haruhi muttered.

Even through the thick walls they could hear Isan crying.

"The Ootori police force can keep Isan's mother away," Kyoya began. "With a restraining order."

Honey kicked his legs eagerly. "The Haninozuka and Morinozuka clans can send bodyguards!"

"Hm," Mori agreed.

"I can get Ouran to enroll her until graduation," Tamaki suggested.

"She can live with me!" Haruhi added enthusiastically.

The Hitachiin brothers sat silently as everyone around them threw out ideas of how to rescue Isan. When the hosts rushed downstairs to have a talk with Kyo and Hailey, they sat in their chairs without moving.

**--**

"We can always just be there for her," Hikaru said when the two were back in their rooms.

"Everyone is going to just be there for her," Kaoru grumbled. "Using their families and resources. What can we do? Send her clothes?"

"We could buy stock in her mother's corporation until there's nothing left!" Hikaru laughed, but Kaoru was not amused. "What's wrong with that?"

"No, we can't do that. It's too extreme, and it'll probably just make her sad."

"Well, let's make her a dress or something."

"A dress?"

"Yeah, she likes dresses. Remember?"

Kaoru remembered showing her the catalogs, trying to pick one out for... Haruhi. Kaoru hit himself in the head. _I bet she thinks I'm stuck on Haruhi. Am I? I might be, but I like her too, I know I do. She probably isn't even thinking of me, anyway, so what does it matter?_

**--**

Isan slept in her large round bed. It was two AM, and she was only in her first few moments of slumber. Her cheeks were stained and her pillow was wet, but something in her mind told her that tomorrow was going to be better.

**--**

The next day, Isan woke and walked down the stairs for breakfast while in her pajamas. She watched her feet sleepily as she waddled down the hallway scratching her stomach.

"Hi, Isan!" two voices sang out.

"Ew, not so pretty in the morning," one said with semi-serious disgust.

Isan looked up to see two boys with orange hair standing in her kitchen. She let out a strange sound that can only be described as, "meep!" and pulled at the short-shorts she had worn to bed self-consciously.

The twins noticed her eyes were stained red, and there were light pink tracks down her cheeks. The two frowned.

"We made you pancakes," the other said solemnly.

_That one's Kaoru, _Isan thought surely. She smiled subconsciously and sat down with a small frown to have pancakes.

"W-why did you make this many?" she asked, looking at the stack of a good 25. Isan smiled, and hoped it looked convincing.

"We're gonna have some, too," Hikaru said flatly. He grabbed ten, and Kaoru did the same. They downed the pancakes as if they were expensive caviar, although they had been made with "commoner batter" (AKA Aunt Jemima), which they talked about as if it were the best thing in the world. Isan listened with shy appreciation.

"That's just what we get," Isan told them. "Aunt Hailey wanted to learn how to cook, so the maids are teaching her slowly."

"That's cool," Kaoru said. "Our mom just lets the maids do it."

"Mine, too. But Hailey is really nice. She's different. I like her a lot."

"Well, thank you," Aunt Hailey said as she walked in. "By the way, would you like to live here?"

Isan sat still for a while. "Yeah, I really would."

Hailey smiled. "I think we can make that happen!"

Isan put a forkful of pancakes in her mouth and blinked hard. She smiled shyly into her plate.

Hailey smiled, and left the room. She chuckled as she watched her niece eat the stack of pancakes.

The twins fell silent as Isan got a bottle of syrup and drowned her pancakes in it.

"What, they're no good?" Hikaru asked boredly, almost sadly.

Isan's eyes darted to Hikaru, and then to Kaoru. "Good for a first try," she said with a small giggle.

"Oh, just so you know, you're enrolled in Ouran again," Kaoru said and shoved some food in his mouth.

Isan looked up at him. "Really?"

The two nodded. "Tamaki did it for you."

Isan smiled. "That's... more than great."

Kaoru smiled at her happiness.

Hikaru ate a few more bites of his pancakes before setting the plate aside. "I'm done. Get dressed and let's go, ok?"

Isan narrowed her eyes. _Testy, testy. Someone is in a bad mood. _"Alright." She ran upstairs and came back down with her dress on and her hair in a messy ponytail. "Let's go!"

**--**

"TA-MA-KI!" Isan screamed down the second year's hallway. Tamaki looked up from where he had been talking to a fangirl on the other side, and Isan ran down the hallway and, for lack of a better word, glomped him. They fell backwards onto the cold floor.

Tamaki let out a joyful laugh and hugged her back. "Isan! I'm glad to see you're in good spirits today!"

"Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!"

"Of course!"

A few girls walked by. "Aw! Why does _she _get to hug Tamaki?"

"She gets to do anything she wants," Cana growled from across the hallway. "It doesn't matter what it is."

Isan simply continued thanking Tamaki, who was staring at Cana in a sympathetic way.

"Hmph!" Cana let out, and walked into her classroom.

Isan was rubbing her head into Tamaki's chest. He looked down at her.

_I _will_ protect her._

_**--**_

Haruhi stared at the familiar face in front of her, turned to the side, staring out the window in the familiar way. She smiled a little and watched her cousin.

Hikaru stared at Haruhi. Over her, he could see Kaoru, also watching Isan.

This irked him, but he was happier to see the two smile instead of frown.

**--**

Hikaru walked over to Isan as she grabbed her briefcase from her cubby. "Hey, Isan."

"Hm?" Isan turned to see Hikaru, then turned back to her cubby to get her books for homework. "Oh, hi, Hikaru."

Hikaru made a small noise. "How did you know it was me and not Kaoru?"

Isan turned to him and shoved books in her bag. "I dunno. I just did."

Hikaru smiled and walked away. "Nevermind."

* * *

'Sup? Thanks for all the comments and reviews! I'm glad everyone likes this so much! I've read them all several times, and I appreciate you all. I love it when people tell me they like Isan, because I always try really hard to make my OCs very much like everyday people, while also putting them in unordinary plot twists and such. I also really appreciate criticism. If you have a problem, let me know. This chapter is wicked long, too, and I'm so unsatisfied with it! It's lacking real... meat. Or a purpose. Rain just makes everything dramatic. x3 Well, it was basically to get into Isan's life. This'll be winding down quite soon, methinks.


	9. Broken Hallelujah

Isan followed Haruhi home that day. Haruka would never find her that way.

"Isan," Haruhi began, "you like Kaoru, right?"

"Yeah. I do. It's different than Kyoya. I don't know why. Am I fickle?"

"Yeah, a little bit."

Isan frowned. "Why?"

"Well, I was wondering what you thought of him. What made you stop liking Kyoya for Kaoru? They're almost polar opposites."

Isan sighed. "Well, when you think about it, each member of the host club is amazing.

"Tamaki wants nothing more than to make you happy. He'd throw his life away if the person he loved asked for it. It's not that he's good-looking on the outside, it's that he shines like gold on the inside. Tamaki's greatest concern is the welfare of everyone else around him, and he knows how to make someone else feel special, whether he knows that he's doing it or not. He can carry huge burdens and then sit with you and wipe your tears away if you even just stub your toe and treat your pain as if it is the only pain he's ever encountered.

"Kyoya is mysterious. He loves to have everyone on his side, and be in-the-know. But he'll watch over you from far away, working behind the scenes to make you happy. If someone hurts you, he will get revenge for you, and you'll never even know it was him. Well, he'd never tell you, but you could probably guess it was him. He would know everything about you and get you everything you need before you ask for it. He knows what'll happen all the time, like he had a sixth sense, or something. I liked Kyoya because he knows everything about everything. For a little while when you're with him, you enter the core of the world, and see everything exactly as it is. Good or evil, when you see things from Kyoya's eyes, it's completely candid. Everyone always tries to protect me from the truth, but I see everything clearly with Kyoya. I was just... surprised.

"Honey-senpai is cute and childish, but loving, and he has strong morals. He has this amazing hidden power of karate, and it's alluring to see him fly around so gracefully. He's so strong, it's a little bit scary, and it's attractive and rare to find a guy who is strong and loving at the same time. But if you were sad or hurting, he'd be the first to jump to help you. He's very small and kiddie right now, but I think that he'll make a great man someday, if he ever separates with Mori. Though, I think that'll be a sad day.

"Mori-senpai is strong and silent. He's a rock who would just let you cry on his shoulder. He's too busy with Honey-senpai to ever fall in love, I think, though. But if he did ever fall in love, I think that girl would be very lucky. It's hard to pinpoint his exact personality, other than he needs a place as a protector, and he worries. It's like he doesn't know how to live a life to take care of himself. He'd need someone very dependent on him, so that he'd be able to live his life happily.

"Hikaru is playful and cynical and sarcastic. He's fun to be around, but he's so childish. He doesn't know it, but he's used to being babied and protected by Kaoru. If you were to fall in love with him, it gives you a job to do. You'd have to become his silent protector and save him. It would give you purpose. Hikaru is a great guy, and even though you'd have to protect him and always be on your guard for his typical mood swings, I see him as someone who could love deeply and who would always be there for the one he loves. It's enough to make me fall in love with him, really. He's so sweet and so naive.

"But Kaoru is someone who could protect you in small ways. He's always one step ahead mentally, and prepared for anything. He can become anything you need him to be, like clay. At the same time, he's always really gentle and wary. He can become you and he knows exactly what your ticks are, just like that. He's a martyr, and it kills me when he sacrifices his own happiness. I want to teach him that he doesn't have to do that. Not for Hikaru, or for anybody. He doesn't see that yet." Isan looked up at the leaves of the tree they were walking under. They were dark green in contrast to the bright blue sky. "He's always protecting Hikaru and bearing things alone. I want to protect him for a change."

Haruhi blinked. She had been smiling through the speech, although she didn't remember at which part the smile formed. "What am I?"

Isan laughed. "Blunt and serious, but selfless and naive. You're like a band-aid for anybody who's suffering."

Haruhi turned serious. "I think you give me too much credit, Isan."

"Then you don't know much about yourself."

"You want to sleep over tonight?"

"Sure!"

**--**

"Isan! It's nice to see you again," Ranka greeted.

"Ranka!" Isan gave her uncle a big hug, which he returned tightly. _Haruhi must have told him everything. _Isan just stayed in the comforting embrace for a while. Sometimes, you just need to hug someone and be hugged back.

Ranka had a troubled look on his face as Isan finally pulled away. "Isan, will you be staying the night?" he asked with a forced smile.

"Oh, yes. If that's okay with you."

"Of course, of course! We love having you here!"

Isan, being closer to Ranka's height than Haruhi's, used a pair of his pajamas that night as she laid out of the small cot in Haruhi's bedroom.

There were four sharp bangs on the door, hurried and urgent.

"Coming!" Ranka sang. He opened the door.

"Isan! Is Isan here?" a man's voice asked.

"Yes, Gokai. She is here."

"Daddy!" Isan yelled. She ran out of Haruhi's room to the door in an old Zuka Club shirt that Haruhi's mother had given Ranka earlier on in their marriage and a pair of shorts.

"Isan!" Gokai let himself in without taking off his shoes. "You're aunt called me in a panic looking for you, and I got four calls from your mother within the next hour. Are you crazy?"

"Sorry," she mumbled. She played with her foot by balancing it on the heel and twisting it back and forth slowly. She turned on the heel and walked into the living room.

Gokai followed her.. "Now, Hailey and Kyo told me about yesterday. Don't be angry at your mother. You know what she's li-"

"Were you sad?"

"Sad?"

"When you found out? Were you sad?"

Gokai sighed and sat on the couch. The bottom of his pant legs came up past the top of his socks. He rested his elbows on his knees and folded his hands in front of his face. He laid his mouth on his fingers and didn't say a word.

Isan stared at the coffee table as she spoke. "Did you love her?"

Haruhi crept out of her room and peered around the corner to see her cousin and uncle. She turned to see her father, who looked like he wanted to break up the two but couldn't find it in his heart to do so.

"I did," Gokai began, "when we were first married. She was beautiful and rich and clumsy," he laughed at that word and smiled nostalgically, "and we had been childhood friends. I was happy. Happy that I at least knew her, and I did come to love her. But it didn't last very long. She's spoiled and individualistic. She cares more about how she looks than the happiness of anyone around her, and she was never a good mother. I didn't want you to have a personal maid. I told her that a girl needs a mother to raise her, but she wanted to attend parties and travel to places like France and New York. She didn't know how to love other people. Even you, her only daughter. Did you know, a fifteen years before you were born-"

"Gokai!" Ranka yelled, "That's enough. There's no need for more disheartening stories. Isan has been sad enough these last few days."

Gokai looked up at his brother without really moving his head, and stood from the couch. "You're, uh, right." He bowed toward Ranka and Haruhi. "Isan, let's go."

Isan looked at her cousin and uncle. "Let me get dressed," she said and left to change.

Haruhi sat on the arm of the couch and laid her hands on her lap. Things ran through her head like leaves in a typhoon wind and she couldn't catch onto a single topic for longer than a moment. Things that went through her head had nothing to do with the current situation. Tamaki. Her mother. The rent. All of a sudden things that she never thought of or worried about individually piled up in her head and she felt like she couldn't breathe or think or move properly.

As Isan walked out of her room in the yellow uniform dress and went to her father, Haruhi stood up. "Don't leave!" she yelled. "We want you here! The Host Club does, too. Even Kaoru! He wants you to stay! He really wants you to stay! If you go, everything will be different."

Isan allowed happy tears to fall from her eyes. "Really?"

Haruhi chuckled a little. "Yeah!"

Isan looked up at her dad. "Can I stay here?"

"Well," he began, "Kyo called me, you know. He said that, with your mother's irresponsible ways and the testimony of a few of your friends of that breakdown yesterday, you've been allowed to stay with him and Hailey. He had a friend in the court systems, some high-up judge or something."

"Really?"

"Yup. So you can stay here if you want, for the night to sleep over. You still have to see your mother, but she booked a one-way flight to France the other day."

"Why?"

"She's moving there with, uh, Tomo to get m-married." Gokai tried to smile, but Isan could see the sadness in his eyes.

Isan played with her feet again. "So, she didn't want me anyway?"

"Cake? I have some cake! Who wants cake?" Ranka yelled, pushing Isan into the kitchen by her shoulders. Haruhi followed behind them.

Gokai stood rooted to the spot as the three walked into the kitchen.

"Are you coming, Gokai?" Ranka asked, turning his head to the side a little but never directly looking at him. "Take off your shoes first. They'll ruin the floor."

With slow and shaking hands, Gokai took off his shoes and placed them perfectly next to each other. He took a few steps into the small home and slid in his socks, but caught himself before he fell.

"Are you alright, uncle?" Haruhi asked casually.

Gokai stood up very straight and then bowed. "Thank you for calling me that, Haruhi."

"No problem."

"Come sit next to me, Daddy!" Isan yelled out, patting the floor to her right, in between herself and Ranka.

Ranka's eyebrow twitched, Isan cleared her throat and shot a sideways glance to him, and he said nothing.

"So," Gokai began. He cleared his throat and played with a spoon. He fidgeted in his seat a little and knocked on the table to a tune that only made sense in his head. He took a few deep breaths and made a few sounds. He cleared his throat again and turned to Isan a little too casually. "Who the hell is this Kaoru boy?"


	10. Gokai and the Hitachiins! A fun short

Gokai marched right up to the Hitachiin estate. It was a sunny day, and the winds were chilled him because of the light sweat he had broken out into. He rang the doorbell, and a chorus of bells rang out to Billy Joel's Only The Good Die Young.

A boy with orange hair parted to the right and a bored look on his face answered the door. He was wearing an blue tank top over a black shirt and a white tank top, whose straps fell lazily down his arms.

Gokai squeezed his eyes tight. _Oh my God, the boy's a delinquent! _

"H-hello, um, is this the Hit- Hitachen residence?"

"If you mean _Hitachiin, _then you would be correct," the boy answered.

Gokai cleared his throat. "I'm sorry." He bowed deeply. "Are you, by any chance, Kaoru?"

"That depends," the boy said, leaning against the door frame and examining his fingernails. His eyes darted up to Gokai and stared into his soul. "Who wants to know?

"I am Gokai Fujioka!" he said with another deep bow.

The smirk that appeared on the boy's face was so small and disappeared so quickly, Gokai believed he hadn't seen it at all.

"Yeah, I'm Kaoru. Are you Isan's father?"

"Uh, uh, uh, yes. Yes, I am."

This time, Gokai definitely saw the boy smirk, although he had no clue as to why. "Come right in," Kaoru said. He led the man through the corridor and into the living room. Gokai sat on a leather seat in front of the empty fireplace.

Kaoru sat on the couch to the right of the chair Gokai had chosen. "I was just leaving as you came in, and that's why I answered the door and not a servant. But I can spare a few moments for _you_."

"Oh, well thank you."

"No problem. Did you need something in particular?"

"Well, naturally, I wanted to talk about my daughter. She was talking about you with her cousin."

"Oh _really! _Well, that's news to me. What did she say about me, exactly?"

"Well, she didn't say anything. Her cousin did all the talking. See, I was going to take her home, but Haruhi- that's her cousin- said something like, 'Kaoru will miss you! He really will!' or something like that, which made Isan very happy. I'm moving soon, and I would like to know what kind of a person you are."

"Really? Well, ever since we were little, we were a little bit twisted, but that happens when you grow up rich. But he really likes her. I don't particularly like her. Actually, I dislike her, for taking him from me, but life goes on and we can't be so close forever, you know? It's just that I never want to lose him. Sometimes, I think that I'm ridiculous. Am I ridiculous?"

Gokai nodded and then shook his head, making his head go in a sort of unsure, circle shape, mouth agape and brow furrowed. Kaoru talked on and on, turning his story around and contradicting himself with every other sentence. All Gokai really wanted to know was, _who is this 'him'? Who is 'him?!_

_"_Really, I'm surrounded by such morons, and now that Isan has joined us, it's like having a complete set. The senseless leader, the cross-dresser, the glasses-character, the cute one, the silent one, the troublesome twins, and now there's one that doesn't really have a place. I wouldn't know where to place her, though. I'm sure Renge would. But if I were to give Isan a place myself, I'd say she's... the dreamer. Kaoru's a lucky guy, to have Isan wrapped around his finger."

Kaoru's eyes drifted up to Gokai's, who, although he hadn't understood a word or why Kaoru had arbitrarily begun referring to himself in the third person, but he at least understood that the boy had just spilled his heart out to him.

Kaoru looked at the clock against the wall and laughed. "I've been talking for an hour. You should go home soon."

Gokai shook Kaoru's hand. He smiled. "I don't really understand what you were saying to me."

"Kaoru loves your daughter very much."

A maid showed him the way out, and he left feeling very refreshed.

**--**

Someone else walked into the Hitachiin estate.

"Hikaru! Hikaru!" Kaoru yelled. He ran into the living room where he found his brother lying on the couch in a troubled silence. "Hikaru? What's wrong? Why didn't you come play soccer with me? I was waiting for you, but you never showed up."

"Oh? Sorry. Nothing's wrong, Kaoru." He shifted in position and looked up to face his brother, who was sitting in the chair to the left of him. "Isan's dad dropped by."

Kaoru stood. "What? What did he want?"

"To talk to Kaoru."

"Hikaru! What did you do?"

"I gave him the next best thing," he said with a small smirk.

"Hikaru!" Kaoru stomped his foot angrily. "What did you say?"

"Not much." Hikaru sighed. "But I think that he likes you."


	11. Everything Must Belong Somewhere

"Am I just bothering everyone?" Isan asked during her and Kyoya's tutoring session together.

Kyoya looked up from the math book. He laid it down with an exasperated sigh. "Why would you think that?"

Isan shrugged. "Just wondering."

Kyoya rested his chin on his hand. "Well, you're not. Everyone wants you here. Don't you believe that?"

"Not really."

"Why?"

A shrug.

"Well, if you're not going to tell me, then I won't pry. I won't gain anything from knowing what you're thinking, so I won't go out of my way. However, I will listen to you if you really need someone, although I should be the last person you go to."

"Ok."

**--**

Haruhi had gone home already. Isan was not sleeping over her house, and so she did not wait for her. She needed to study for the upcoming English test, not fool around with the Host Club. She walked into her comfortable apartment and took off her shoes.

"Dad, I'm home."

"Oh, hello, Haruhi."

"Hm?" Haruhi peeked her head into the kitchen where her father was sitting with his fingers wrapped around a mug of steaming tea. "What's the matter?"

Ranka sighed. "Gokai called me."

**--**

Tamaki danced down the hallway, waving to everyone as he went, and over to a large window. Right ahead of him was the huge clock. _Kyoya and Isan must be out of their tutoring lesson, now. _He turned to go toward the third music room just in time to see Isan bow politely to Kyoya and walk away in the direction opposite of Tamaki. Just then, Kyoya's cell phone rang.

"Kyoya speaking. Oh, hello; no, she's not here. What's wrong?" There was a pause, during which Kyoya made a few expressions of shock and worry that disturbed Tamaki. "What? Yes, I understand. Thank you for telling me Haruhi." He closed the phone.

"Kyoya, what happened?"

"Isan's hospitalized aunt died this morning, and her father is moving to Russia to work with a thriving architecture company that has a close partnership with one in Italy. Apparently, he'll be flying back and forth often, and so he's going to leave Isan with Kyo and Hailey so that she can stay in one school."

"What about her mother?"

"Haruhi told me that she moved to Paris with a man she had been cheating with, with no intention of bringing Isan with her."

"Even after all that trouble she put her through?"

"It seems it was just a show to seem like a better person in front of that man. Tomo, I believe?"

Tamaki looked up to where Isan had walked away, but she had already turned to corner.

**--**

Isan walked through the doors of Ouran into the sun. It was a warm, beautiful day. She hopped down the stairs and was stopped by Hikaru.

"Hey. Your dad came to my house yesterday," he said with a light smirk on his face.

Isan shielded her eyes from the sun with her hand. "Oh? Why?"

"To have a man-to-man talk with Kaoru."

Isan must have blushed, because her face became hot and Hikaru's smirk grew much more unpleasant to her eyes.

Isan coughed. "O-oh. What did he say?"

"The usual stuff. He wanted to know who he was and what he thought of you. Hey, where's he moving to?" Hikaru asked as the two walked toward Isan's limo. "And why aren't you going?"

"Moving? He's not moving."

"Oh. He told me-" Hikaru caught himself and shrugged. "I bet I heard wrong. I was pretending to be Kaoru, so maybe I was just having too much fun and wasn't listening."

"Maybe. He didn't tell me anything." Isan's voice lost its confidence as the sentence went on.

_Why else would I still be living with Kyo and Hailey if he was staying? No, he would have told me. He would have!_

**--**

Haruhi gasped. "Why are so many things happening to her?"

"Everybody has hardships in their lives. Some people just get them all at once." Ranka took a sip of his tea. "You know, I was so angry at her when your mother died because she had a loving family. Now, she's losing that loving family, and she doesn't even know it's happening. You only lost your mother, and although that's terrible to deal with, she's losing everybody

Haruhi sat down across from her father. "She's not a bad person! She doesn't deserve this."

"I know. And I'm worried about her."

**--**

Isan drove up to her uncle's huge estate. He and Hailey were waiting for her when she arrived. Kyo's hand was on Hailey's shoulder, and she stood with her hands clasped in front of her. The two looked so ominous and mysterious and sad that Isan didn't want to get out of the car and face them, but she did.

"What's wrong?"

Her aunt and uncle looked at each other before Hailey said, "well, your aunt has passed away, sweetheart."

Isan was not too saddened by that. For a long while she had been basically brain dead and unresponsive. It was only a matter of time. She had done all of her crying when her aunt had slipped into the coma, and there were only a few tears left for her dead aunt now.

"And you're father is moving."

"What? Where are we going?"

"You're staying here."

"Where is he going?"

"Russia."

"Russia!"

"Yes. To work with mathematics in architecture."

Although Isan was happy to be able to go to Ouran and be with her friends and cousin, she felt sad and forgotten. Everyone was leaving her behind, and eventually Kyo and Hailey would, too.

"Also," Hailey began. She took in a deep breath and let out quickly, "I'm pregnant."

**-Ten Months Later-**

_It. Never. Stops, _Isan thought to herself as Hakuchumu cried. His infant scream echoed down the quiet hallways and into each room of the house.

Isan let her forehead drop onto her homework papers as he screamed some more. The boy was never happy, but he was a cute baby.

His eyes were big and blue, like his mother's, but his hair was dark brown, like his father's. Isan was babysitting while her aunt and uncle were out at some important meeting or another about something.

She tiptoed out of her room and into her cousin's. Inside, a maid was trying in vain to get him to stop crying, and she looked up at Isan with sad, defeated eyes.

"Gimme 'im," Isan said holding out her arms. The baby was plopped into them immediately and the maid ran away, probably to get an Advil.

"Shh," she whispered to the baby. The clock rung four times, making it about time for a nap. She rocked him slowly and paced his yellow and green circus room.

"Leave the bright blue door on the white-washed wall," she sang in a voice that the baby had no idea wasn't in tune, "Leave the death ledger under city hall. Leave the joyful air in that rubber ball today.

"Just leave the lilac print on the linen sheet. Leave the birds you killed at your father's feet. Let the sideways rain in the crooked street remain

"Leave the whimpering dog in his cold kennel. Leave the dead starlet on her pedestal. Leave the acid kids in their green fishbowls today

"Leave the sad guitar in its hard-shell case. Leave the worried look on your lover's face. Let the orange embers in the fireplace remain

"'Cause everything it must belong somewhere. Oh a train off in the distance, bicycle chained to the stairs. Everything it must belong somewhere. I know that now, that's why I'm staying here."

She took in a deep breath.

"Leave the ocean's roar in the turquoise shell. Leave the widower in his private hell. Leave the liberty in that broken bell today

"Just leave the epic poem on its yellowed page. Leave the gray macaw in his covered cage. Let the traveling band on the interstate remain

"'Cause everything it must belong somewhere. Sound-stage in California, televisions in Times Square, yeah. Everything it must belong somewhere. I know that now, that's why I'm staying here. Well I know that now that's why I'm staying here.

"Leave the secret talks on the trundle bed. Leave the garden tools in the rusted shed. Leave those bad ideas in your troubled head today

"Just leave the restless ghost in his old hotel. Leave the homeless man out in that cardboard cell. Let the painted horse on the carousel remain

"'Cause everything it must belong somewhere. Just like the gold around her finger or the silver in his hair. Yeah, everything it must belong somewhere. I know that now, that's why I'm staying here. Oh, I know that now, that's why I'm staying here.

"In truth, the forest hears each sound. Each blade of grass as it lies down. The world requires no audience. No witnesses, no witnesses!

"Leave the old town drunk on his wooden stool. Leave the autumn leaves in their swimming pool. Leave the poor black child in his crumbling school today

"Leave the novelist in his daydream tomb. Leave the scientist in her rubic's cube. Let the true genius in the padded room remain

"Leave the horse's hair on the slanted bow. Leave the slot machines on the riverboat. Leave the cauliflower in the casserole today

"Just leave the hot, bright trash in the shopping malls. Leave the hawks of war in their capitals. Let the organ's moan in the cathedral remain

"'Cause everything it must belong somewhere. They locked the devil in the basement, threw God up into the air. Yeah, everything must belong somewhere. You know it's true, I wish you'd leave me here. You know it's true, why don't you leave me here?*" The last note was too low for her voice to reach, so she substituted it for a high one. She had been singing for only four minutes, but the real song was about six. It sounded like she had timed it right when she was singing it.

There was a small chuckle behind her, and it was only then she realized Hakuchumu was asleep.

She turned around to see Kaoru. Quickly, but careful to not wake the baby, she placed him in the crib on his back and left the room.

"Why are you here?"

Kaoru frowned. "I though you'd be happy to see me." He shrugged. "Fine, fine; I'll go home."

"No!" Isan placed her hand over her mouth then lowered her voice. "No, you don't have to."

He leaned against the look on his face was one of a troubled, angsty, good-looking, teenage boy. Had Isan not caught herself in time, she would have let out a squee similar to those the other Ouran females give out.

And it would have woken Hakuchumu.

"What's up?" she asked, coming up to him from the side and placing her hand on his chest, blushing, and then putting it on his shoulder. "I'something wrong?"

"I'm not sure. I'm not a very blunt person-"

Isan face fell flat with cynicism. _Yeah, right._

"-and I get nervous really easily. I get worried about what people think of me, especially when I want to open up to them. I feel like everyone will reject me."

"Did something happen, Kaoru? Here, come sit with me downstairs. I'll get us something to drink and a snack, and you can tell me what's wrong." She began to walk away but he grabbed her by the arm.

"I like you," he said.

She turned to him slowly. "Hm?"

He let tightened his grip on her arm. "For the past year I've wanted to tell you, but you've had so much bothering you that I couldn't. I didn't want to to put you through anything. In retrospect, I guess I was a little afraid for myself, too. I was afraid you'd reject me."

Isan turned slowly to Kaoru. Part of her told her to run into his arms, but the larger, more cowardly part of her told her to get away from his as fast as possible.

"I'll... I'll..." and she ran away. She had meant to say 'I'll get drinks', but she sentence wouldn't form.

Kaoru watched her go for a moment and ran after her.

"Wait, please! Don't run from me!" He caught up to her quickly and blocked her path.

Isan didn't make eye contact with him. "Hmmhm?" she let out in place of 'yes'.

"I just knew that there was no reason to keep it a secret anymore," he told her. "I didn't want to keep making excuses! Don't run away from me!"

Isan took in a deep breath and clenched her fists with determination. She opened her mouth, but still no words came out. She laughed, and sat against the wall.

"What's so funny?"

Still mute, Isan took out her cell phone and sent him a text message.

The two got into a small conversation.

Isan stared at her screen before typing, _I can't talk._

Kaoru's cell beeped twice. He read the message and sent back, _Why?_

_I'm nervous._

_Oh. Why did you run away?_

_For the same reason._

_I'm sorry._

_Don't be! Me, too._

_You don't have to be sorry._

_Not that._

_Not what?_

_That's not why I said me too._

_Why did you say it?_

_You know why._

Kaoru looked over at her with a sweet smile. "Do you?"

"Don't have such a big ego!" Isan yelled. Her answer was exactly the opposite of what she had wanted to say, and she grumbled.

Kaoru's eyes softened. He stood and held out his hand, which Isan took and stood. They walked down the hallway. Kaoru tried to grab Isan's hand as they walked, but she pulled away, blushing deep red, and folded her arms so that her hands were hidden. She picked up her pace so that she was a few steps ahead of him, head bowed, and all Kaoru did was chuckle.

The two drank sodas next to each other on a large swede couch as Kyo and Hailey walked in.

"Oh! Isan, you have a friend over?" Hailey asked.

"Yup."

"How's Haku-chan?"

"Fine."

Hailey raised an eyebrow. A sly smile crossed her lips. "Ok. Have fun."

The married couple walked into the kitchen.

"Who's that boy?" Kyo asked.

"Oh, Darling. It looks like her boyfriend."

"Boyfriend!" Kyo screamed, making Isan and Kaoru blush brightly from three rooms over.

Upstairs, the baby began to scream.

"Oh, look at what you've done! He must have been asleep." Hailey shook her head and sighed. "She's sixteen. Of course she's going to have a boyfriend. Mommy's coming, sweetheart!" Hailey ran upstairs.

Kyo looked into the living room, peeking slightly, resembling an overprotective father. The teenagers weren't even looking at each other. They looked as if the sodas on the coffee table were poison, or at least disgusting, because they stared at them without taking a sip or even touching them.

"Boyfriend," he muttered to himself as he walked away. "Over my dead body."

"You will not interfere," Hailey said as she came back downstairs with a quiet baby in her arms. "Leave the girl alone."

Kyo turned to see Kaoru kiss Isan and run from the house.

"Oh, my," Hailey said, more amazed by the boy's bluntness than the pale white man standing beside her or the rose-red girl on the couch.

Outside, Kaoru turned back to the house with satisfaction. He met his limo driver at the sidewalk and went home, his fingertips placed gently on his lips.

* * *

***"Everything Must Belong Somewhere****" by Bright Eyes. I do not own, etc.**


	12. evol eganeet drawkwa

The next few days went by, and Isan spoke seldom to anyone during the course of the school days. Occasionally, she would look at Koaru, and her eyes would dart away while her face became a deep red. She reported to the Host Club every afternoon- for Haruhi, and that was the only reason.

The _only _reason.

Granted, her eyes would methodically turn to the twins as the did their act for the girls, which annoyed her. It wasn't because she wanted Kaoru's attention, though.

That wasn't it.

Haruhi finished with a customer and strolled over to her cousin, who was sitting on a red velvet chair by the back of the room. "Isan?"

Isan frowned and decided to ignore their silly act, but didn't hear Haruhi calling her from a foot away.

"Isan?"

Isan looked up at Haruhi. "Oh, Haruhi. What?"

"Did you guys... fight?"

Isan blushed. "No, that's not it."

"Then why won't you talk to him? He thinks you're mad."

Isan stood up. "He does?"

"Yeah. He said so yesterday."

Isan played with her fingers. "Oh. I'm not-" she stopped her sentence, too embarrassed to go on.

Haruhi raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. A few of her customers came, and she excused herself, leaving Isan to fret alone.

When club was over, Isan asked Haruhi to pull Kaoru aside for her. Haruhi did as she was asked, and Isan found Kaoru leaning against the wall in the deserted hallway.

"Uhmm," Isan began.

Kaoru looked up at her, then looked down at his feet. "Sorry," he muttered. "For being so bold."

The color on both teenagers' cheeks was bright and awkward. Neither knew what to say, because neither were experienced in this field. Isan didn't have the bluntness or obliviousness that her cousin was blessed with, and Kaoru didn't have the fearlessness or honesty that Hikaru had. They both knew exactly what they wanted to say, but couldn't say it.

"I-" the two began at the same time, which was followed by the awkward and simultaneous, "uh, you first."

They both giggled a little, and that put Kaoru at enough ease to begin. He looked at Isan with a small, sad smile. "I've always looked after Hikaru," he said. "But I want to look after you, too."

Isan blushed deeply, and pushed his face with her palm. "Don't! Don't say anything else. I'm feeling awkward."

Kaoru rubbed his cheek and smiled. He knew that she understood, but also knew nothing was being accomplished. "Maybe we can go to dinner sometime?"

Isan nodded but didn't speak. She let her hair fall over her face so he couldn't see the color of her face, but he could see the red tips of her ears. He pushed himself off the wall and walked past Isan to the door of Ouran.

As he walked by, she grabbed his sleeve. "Wait for me," she mumbled softly.

Kaoru stopped in his tracks and extended his elbow. Isan slipped her arm through the hole he had created and they walked out silently, arm-in-arm.

When they got outside, Hikaru ambushed them with a mocking snicker that made Isan growl.

"I might as well welcome you to the family," Hikaru laughed, pushing his face close to hers.

She kicked his leg and Kaoru pushed him away playfully. "I'm _just_ walking her home!"

Hikaru sighed. "And then you'll _just _be dating, and then you'll _just _be engaged, and then you'll _just_ be married, and then you'll _just _be parents."

Kaoru met eyes with his twin, and Isan caught the serious look they shared.

Hikaru finally smiled smiled and patted his brother on the back. "Good luck."

**The End.**

**

* * *

**Hope this is much better than the last! I like it a lot more.


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